Updated: June 9, 2022 7:12:59 am
Uma Khapre (Left) and Pankaja Munde (Right). (Source: Twitter)WHILE BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde, who was widely expected to make it to State Legislative Council, remained out of bounds for the media on Wednesday after her name did not figure in the list declared by the party, her father Gopinath Munde’s protege had reasons to raise a toast. Uma Khapre, 56, known for her proximity to the former Union Minister, has been picked by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) central leadership for the council seat.
On Wednesday, the BJP announced five names for the council, election for which will be held on June 20.
“It came as a big surprise. I had not applied for the council seat neither was I eyeing it. I first got a call from a party leader at 6 in the morning that I might be picked for the council seat. At 8 am, our party chief confirmed that I have been picked,” Khapre, who is the women’s president for the state BJP, told The Indian Express.
Reacting to Pankaja Munde being denied the council seat, BJP state president Chandrakant Patil said, “The decision for Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, assembly and council seats are taken by the central leadership of the party…we, as disciplined soldiers, have to accept it. Pankaja is a national secretary and the party might be planning something else for her in the future.”
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Describing Gopinath Munde as her “guru,” Khapre said, “I was an integral part of Munde saheb’s team till his death. He trusted me a lot and gave me at least six-seven posts of BJP units in Pimpri-Chinchwad and at state levels when he headed the party in Maharashtra.”
When Munde died days after he was sworn in as a minister in the PM Narendra Modi-led central government in 2014, Khapre was among the first leaders from Pimpri-Chinchwad to reach Beed district, the home town of Munde. “I was completely shattered. I thought my political career would end,” she said.
Khapre said that when she contested her first civic election over two decades back, Gopinath Munde had turned up in person to campaign for her. “He came all the way to campaign for an ordinary party worker. It boosted my morale,” she said.
Khapre said when Munde undertook a state-wide tour against the “wrongdoings” of the then Congress-NCP government in the state, she had observed him from close quarters. “The way Munde saheb raised several acts of omissions and commissions of the then state government was truly inspiring. I learnt a lot from him. He was a leader who led from the front,” he said.
Khapre, an OBC leader, said she has no clue why she was picked for the council. “May be the party observed my hard work and rewarded me. I have campaigned for the party in the recent Uttar Pradesh polls and in the past I campaigned in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand polls…I have been a loyal party soldier all my life,” she said.
BJP leader Sarang Kamtekar said, “Uma Khapre has been an OBC face of the party. Her nomination seems to be a part of our party’s strategy to honour women’s wing leader with legislative post.”
Besides Khapre, BJP has picked Pravin Darekar, the Opposition leader in the State Legislative Council, Shrikant Bharatiya, Ram Shinde and Prasad Lad.
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