Mumbai: The central leadership of the BJP has directed the Maharashtra unit to broaden its state leadership base ahead of the assembly poll campaign
The party high command has decided to bring in former Maharashtra ministers Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde as their fresh leadership faces in the state. Khadse had left the party many years ago to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he would not be joining back the BJP.
While Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will continue to lead the state team in the campaign, the party will depend on more faces and may give Rajya Sabha nomination to either Pankaja or Khadse, according to a top leader.
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BJP Goes Into A Major Course Correction Exercise
BJP has gotten into a major course correction exercise after the party did not perform well in the recent Lok Sabha polls. The tally from Maharashtra in Lok Sabha came down from 23 in the last elections to nine in the latest one.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president JP Nadda held a meeting with top leaders of the state in New Delhi and had detailed discussions on how to proceed for the state assembly polls. The high command also held separate meetings with Fadnavis and other leaders.
One big decision was to bring back an estranged senior party leader from Jalgaon Eknath Khadse. His daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse who contested the polls on a BJP ticket, won and has now been included in the Union government. Khadse had major disagreements with the party some years ago and quit to join the NCP, but has now reconciled with the BJP and was given an appointment by Amit Shah for a personal meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
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A top leader from Maharashtra said Khadse would soon officially rejoin the BJP and would be given some position in preparation of his future role during the assembly campaign which may begin in about a month’s time.
Khadse has a wider appeal beyond just the north Maharashtra region from where he comes, as he belongs to the generation of state BJP stalwarts such as Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde.
The other big decision conveyed to the state leadership by the central high command was about former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde. In the latest Lok Sabha polls, Pankaja lost by a very small margin in Beed but the party reportedly has decided to support her. Daughter of late BJP leader and former Union minister Gopinath Munde, Pankaja is the party’s leading OBC face in Maharashtra. The BJP feels she would be an asset in the campaign in Maharashtra.
A top leader from the BJP told The FPJ on condition of anonymity that the party high command is now looking at filling the Rajya Sabha seat which will be vacated by Union minister Piyush Goyal with either Khadse or Pankaja. Goyal got elected to the Lok Sabha from the Mumbai North constituency and is expected to vacate his Rajya Sabha seat soon.
The BJP’s formula for the upcoming state assembly polls in Maharashtra is to have multiple faces of mass leaders instead of going with just one leader commanding the entire state unit of the BJP.
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