Nephew scores over Munde

MUMBAI: Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde on Monday suffered a jolt when Deepak Deshmukh, a party rebel, won the chairmanship of the Parali municipal council. By propping up Deshmukh, Dhananjay Munde, BJP MLC, has unfurled a banner of revolt against his uncle, Munde Sr. The Congress-NCP teamed up with Dhananjay to hurl a challenge at Munde, say observers.
The 32-strong Parali municipal council in Beed district has 17 BJP councillors, while the Congress-NCP's combined strength is 14. One member is an Independent. Deshmukh polled 26 votes against six polled by the official BJP nominee Jugal Kishore Lohia, a Munde loyalist. Dhananjay poached on the BJP civic group to score over his uncle. The BJP councillors ignored the party whip.
Munde addressed his followers in Parali soon after the defeat of his candidate and expressed faith in the party's resilience to tide over the crisis. The rebel brings not the leader but himself to disrepute. I am confident peple of Parali will retain their trust in the BJP, and we all will work unitedly and strongly for the party,'' he said.
Gopinath couldn't conceal his hurt, though. I groomed him (Dhananjay). He now wants to stand under the shade of a larger tree,'' remarked Munde who is known in Maharashtra politics as mass leader, next only to Sharad Pawar.
Later, talking to mediapersons, Dhananjay hinted that the Congress-NCP may have backed the BJP rebel. "Maybe, the Congress-NCP felt that our revolt was genuine,'' he said.
The Maharashtra BJP has threatened disciplinary action against Dhananjay and party councillors who voted against the official candidate, said state BJP chief Sudhir Mungantiwar. "The rebels will be given a week's time to reply to the show-cause notice. Then they will be suspended from the BJP for six years,'' Mungantiwar said. Leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Eknath Khadse described the rebellion as "unfortunate.'' Mungantiwar and Khadse had held talks with Dhananjay last week to defuse the crisis. However, Dhananjay refused to toe the party line.
"I have nothing personal against Mundesaheb,'' Dhananjay said, adding, "however, there is a caucus against him which takes decisions on his behalf. We wanted to demolish the clique's supremacy in the party.''
Dhananjay urged the state BJP not to press disciplinary action against the rebels. "We want to put an end to the matter here. We would continue to hold (Gopinath) Mundesaheb in high esteem,'' he said.