Speculation in Maharashtra on Gopinath Munde quitting BJP to join Congress

There is intense speclation on whether Gopinath Munde, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, would remain in the party or move over to the Congress party, for his political survival.

The Congress has already made it clear that he’d be welcome. His entry would be a big boost, ahead of local self-government elections scheduled between November and February next year. Munde’s friend and Union rural development minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, has been in constant touch with him, trying to lure him in. Deshmukh is beleived to be instrumental in organising Munde's meeting last week with veteran Congress leader and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Munde broke silence and told Business Standard: “As of now, I continue to be in the BJP. I desire to remain in the party. BJP stalwart L K Advani is a fatherly figure for me. I have good rapport with Sushma Swaraj, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and BJP's former president, Venkaiah Naidu.” Without dulging more, he said he’d adopted a wait and watch policy.

Deshmukh, currently in Hyderabad, confirmed he’d held telephonic conversations with Munde. Without revealing details, he dropped sufficient hints that the Congress would be happy to see Munde join. Among other things, he’d be a useful counter to its troublesome ally, Sharad Pawar’s National Congress Party. Munde has led earlier movements against Pawar.

Munde's growing isolation from the state and national BJP leadership is quite visible, especially after Nitin Gadkari took over as national president. The latest trigger was appointment of the chief of the party's Pune unit from the anti-Munde camp, headed by Gadkari. Munde showed his strong resentment by remaining absent from the joint rallies organised thereafter in parts of Maharashtra by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance and its new partner, the Republican Party of India (Athavale) against the Congress-NCP rule in the state.

Munde, who worked hard to change the BJP's face in Maharashtra to being a party of all castes from one considered to be dominated by Brahmins and traders in the 1980s, was also unhappy at Gadkari's decision to take Uma Bharti back into the party fold. Bharti, like Munde from the Other Backward Communities (OBC), may weaken Munde's prospects as an OBC leader in national politics.