BJP to field Pritam Munde for Beed Lok Sabha by-poll

With BJP MLA Pankaja Munde, daughter of Gopinath Munde, indicating that she would not contest the bypoll to the Beed Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, which fell vacant after her father's demise, the party has decided to field the late leader's other daughter Pritam for the seat.

"The state BJP unit has proposed Pritam's name as party nominee for Beed Lok Sabha bypoll," a senior state BJP leader said here today.

With Pankaja, who recently undertook a statewide 'Sangharsh Yatra', sending out signals that she would focus on affairs in Maharashtra, there was speculation that her sister Pritam would be the BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Beed.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar had publicly declared after Munde's death that his party won't field any candidate if any family member of the Munde family were to contest the bypoll.

Pritam Munde, who is based in Nashik, has already started visiting Parli, Beed and other areas of the constituency.

NCP's Ramesh Adaskar, who contested against Gopinath Munde during the earlier Lok Sabha poll, recently joined the BJP.