Munde backs Uddhav: Pawar wanted to join NDA, we kept him out

Beed, Maharashtra: Deputy leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra’s most prominent BJP leader with a mass base of his own, Gopinath Munde is mincing no words with polling for his constituency just nine days away. Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who has been camping in Beed district for three days campaigning against Munde, told a rally in one of the drought-hit region’s worst affected talukas that a phalanx of senior BJP leaders is waiting to see Munde lose this election, a not-so-oblique reference to Munde’s rivalry with former BJP president Nitin Gadkari. “The only leader waiting for anything is Pawar himself, and he is waiting to join the NDA,” Munde told Firstpost at an interaction with a small group of journalists at his residence in Parli, in Beed district, on Tuesday morning. Reigniting the controversy initiated by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray who claimed it was his opposition to the idea that Sharad Pawar could not join the NDA, Munde said Pawar had indeed approached NDA leaders. “I spoke to Uddhav about it and then to other alliance partners in Maharashtra. And we all decided together that we would not allow Sharad Pawar and his NCP to join the NDA.” The senior Maratha statesman has courted controversy in recent months by first appearing to make overtures towards Narendra Modi by stating that the Gujarat chief minister had been given a clean chit with regard to the communal violence of 2002, then doing a turnaround of sorts and stating that the chief minister of a state under whose watch such violence occurred cannot be absolved of all responsibility and accountability. Pawar most recently also took on Modi by saying the latter needed to be treated in a mental asylum. [caption id=“attachment_1470945” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Breakfast at Munde’s residence in Parli, Beed on Tuesday morning. Kavitha Iyer/Firstpost[/caption] The NCP has fielded minister of state in the Maharashtra government Suresh Dhas against Munde. Dhas is a former protégé of Munde. His candidature, as well as Pawar’s intensive campaigning in the Beed Lok Sabha constituency appear part of the NCP’s very keen rivalry with the BJP in the region. Five of the six Assembly constituencies that comprise Beed LS constituency are held by NCP members, the only exception being Parli, which was won by Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde-Palwe in October 2009. Not only is Dhas a former Munde aide, but a series of senior leaders in the region including MLAs, former MLAs and MLCs, now with the NCP, started their political career under Munde. The most telling blow the NCP dealt, however, was in winning over Munde’s nephew Dhananjay, formerly a BJP MLC and an aspirant to the Parli Assembly seat that was eventually contested by Pankaja. Despite the fierce campaigning by the NCP, with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and home minister RR Patil also campaigning in Beed this week, Munde is expected to win, though perhaps by not as large a margin as his supporters would like. Munde went on to say the NDA would need the support of neither the NCP nor the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena – the other party whose possible induction into the NDA led to the Shiv Sena’s vociferous opposition – to form the government after the elections. Asked about his rival Gadkari’s failed attempt to convince Raj Thackeray and his MNS from fielding candidates against BJP/Sena candidates in Maharashtra, Munde said, “The MNS has now declared its support for Modi as PM. That’s because they cannot get any votes on their own name and need Modi’s name to win votes.” He said he does not expect the MNS to win many seats in any case. However, he refused to rule out a post-poll alliance, stating that post-poll alliances could be discussed when the time is right. Asked about whether the war of words involving Modi and UPA leaders has led to a very embittered and polarised polity in the run-up to the election, Munde said the real reason for this being such a starkly polarised election is that this is the first time since the death of Rajiv Gandhi that the contest is clearly between two national parties. “Except in 2009, the Congress never crossed 200 seats in this period. After a spate of coalition governments formed with regional parties, people now want one party to get a clear majority,” he said. While pre-poll surveys have shown Modi’s popularity rising consistently, Rahul Gandhi’s popularity has been waning, he said. “And look at how hard Modi has been working. He is addressing over 100 rallies. Nobody has done that. If the masses are coming out to see him, there must be something about him that appeals to them,” Munde said. The BJP which could win 120 seats on its own without Modi as PM candidate will certainly reach the majority mark with NDA partners, he added. Asked if there is a Plan B in case regional parties and prospective allies object to Modi as the NDA’s PM candidate, Munde said such an issue would be discussed only if such a scenario arises after the election. The BJP has worked hard to tie-up alliances in southern states, a step that would clearly give the party the extra numbers it needs, he added. While the alliance with the TDP in Andhra Pradesh – through which the BJP is contesting more seats in Telangana and the TDP is concentrating on Rayalaseema – the battle has become a straight contest between the BJP-TDP on one side and the TRS on the other, he said. In Tamil Nadu, the alliance with six small parties has led to a three-way fight. “And Jayalalithaa has said that she could support Modi if there is a shortage of numbers,” he added, stating that the BJP has made real advances in these three southern states.