Threatening to file a defamation case against media outlets that reported that she was set to join the Congress, Munde said the speculation was a bid to tarnish her image.
DISMISSING SPECULATION that she was going to join the Congress, BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde on Friday termed the reports as baseless.
“All these reports are absolutely baseless. I have never seen nor personally met Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. There may have been statements of offers from political rivals but I have never reciprocated,” Munde, who has repeatedly made public her disappointment over being sidelined by the Maharashtra BJP, said.
Threatening to file a defamation case against media outlets that reported that she was set to join the Congress, Munde said the speculation was a bid to tarnish her image. “If I were ever to take any decision, it would be with a bang, in public. All this speculation regarding me leaving the BJP and joining the Congress is orchestrated to tarnish my image in public,” she said. She also alleged that often her statements were picked out of context to malign her image.
Expressing concern over the current political developments in state, Munde said that she was going to take a one or two-month break from politics. “In the last 20 years of my political career, I have worked sincerely, keeping the party in sight. But I am confused with the goings-on now… I need to take a break for one or two months… I will do introspection,” she said in Satara. Acknowledging that her followers want to see her in a prime role, Munde said, “I have never uttered a word against my party or leaders. I have always done the work assigned to me without questioning.”
She said that after the 2019 Assembly polls, some people had been awarded Rajya Sabha and state Legislative Council seats. “At least twice I was told to keep the form ready. But at the last minute, I was asked not to fill out the form. I never asked why,” she said.
“When I look around, there is this make-or-break politics. Someone wants power, someone a post…There are talks that this one is finished and that party is finished. I am worried and wonder if one were to say the same about Deendayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s party…,” she further said, adding that she had inherited politics from her father, the late Gopinath Munde, and that they were inspired by the politics and ideologies of Upadhyay and Vajpayee.
