Taking on Pawar will help Munde in polls

Senior BJP leader Gopinath Mundersquos unexpected love for the game of cricket was as curious as his ambition to trounce NCP chief Sharad Pawar in the elections for the post of president of Mumbai Cricket Association an influential cricket body in the country The aspiration was all the more interesting since Munde neither had the backing of any of the three contesting panels nor the support of a sizeable group of voters So what does Mundersquos fight against Pawar indicate specially since he is obviously aware of Pawarrsquos clout in the association Now that the result is out it will be fun to see how long the battle continues as Munde has decided to approach the judiciary and raise certain controversial points related to the functioning of the MCA and the Garware Club House affiliated to it Today BJPrsquos deputy leader in Lok Sabha who is also its state election chief seems charged to take on the NCP in general and the unclenephew Pawar duo in particularu00a0 The roots of discord are in Beed Mundersquos home district After his nephew Dhananjay who used to control the local politics while Munde would be away in Mumbai and Delhi joined NCP and got elected to the state council on the party ticket it was a huge setback for Munde The younger generation of the Munde supporters particularly from Wanjari community to which they belong is with Dhananjay So its quite obvious that Munde Senior has a bigger challenge to face at home given his hopes to play a big role in the state and national politics He has spoken of his ambition to become chief minister Recently he announced he was going to be the next Union agriculture minister if his party wins the Lok Sabha under Narendra Modirsquos leadership To realise the dream Munde needs to expand his party base besides ensuring his own win in Beed But the presence of Dhananjay and his father Panditanna in Beed along with seven legislators and two NCP ministers from the district can become a direct threat to his chances Thatrsquos why he has decided to declare war against the NCP chief and his nephew Ajit Pawar who indirectly controls the partyrsquos affairs in Beed So determined is Munde that for the first time he decided to make inroads in Baramati His MLA daughter Pankaja Munde Palwe who heads the BJPrsquos youth wing led a march to Baramati Rarely in the past has the BJP taken interest in the area and attacked the Pawars on their home turf History says the BJP has never fielded any serious candidate against the Pawars in the general or state assembly elections This is scene two of the political actiondrama starring Munde and Pawar The state saw the first one play out in 199395 when Munde spared no efforts to expose Pawar on all fronts And Pawar faced challenges not just from Munde but also from social activist Anna Hazare and nowdeceased Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray who targeted him at public rallies As things went Munde was acknowledged as leader of the sugar factory workers by the federation of sugar cooperatives an influential body controlled by Pawar After the state elections in 1999 it was said that a section within the BJP was responsible for the victory of CongressNCP Munde was nursing hopes of being chief minister which were difficult to fructify since the post was with Shiv Sena And though the SenaBJP had the required number of MLAs the saffron alliance did not form the government Congressman Vilasrao Deshmukh was sworn in as the chief minister Moreover the BJP along with the Sena wholeheartedly supported Pawarrsquos daughter Supriya Sulersquos entry in politics with a byeelection to Rajya Sabha in 2006 Both the parties decided not to field candidates against Sule even when they had the numbers to challenge her Sule made it to Rajya Sabha unopposed Later during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections NCP fielded a young rather weak candidate against Munde Munde won by a margin of 140 lakh but all his party candidates except his daughter lost the state elections held just four months later Such developments look interesting but there is no permanent friend or foe in politics Now Munde is getting the maximum attention as he has challenged the Pawars which will help him in the coming elections u00a0 mdash The writer is Political Editoru00a0of MiD DAYu00a0