Maharashtra: Pankaja Munde, BJP Candidate From Beed Constituency (image-facebook/Pankaja Gopinath Munde)
BJP National Secretary Pankaja Munde is fielded as the BJP candidate from the Beed constituency. Pankaja, known as the ‘businesswoman’ in the Sugar Factory and Bank Sector, was included in the second BJP candidate list.
Pankaja hails from a family renowned of BJP leaders. She is the niece of Pramod Mahajan and cousin to Rahul Mahajan and Poonam Mahajan. Pankaja being one of the mass and firebrand leaders from Maharashtra state has been awarded with ‘The Powerful Politician’ award.
Gopinath Munde, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra is the father of Pankaja. She in 2012 was elected as the State President of BJP’s Youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 2012. In 2009, she was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra from the Parli constituency. Later in 2014, she took oath as the Maharashtra Cabinet Minister. She was allotted Ministry of Rural Development, Women & Child welfare.
To ensure the BJP’s victory, before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Maharashtra BJP announced a two-week “Punha Sangharsh Yatra” which was planned and led by Pankaja Munde. Earlier a similar yatra was undertaken by her father in 1995 after which the Shiva-Sena BJP came into power in the state. The 14-day-long Yatra began on 27 August 2014. BJP stalwarts including Amit Shah, Smiriti Irani and Rajiv Pratap Rudy have taken part in the rally.
2022 was considered a year of victory for the BJP leader as she successfully had the upper hand in the nagar panchayat election in the Beed district. In the Beed district, the BJP emerged victorious in all 4 Nagar Panchayat and bagged a maximum number of seats under her leadership.
In 2015, Indian National Congress accused her of being involved in the chikki scam alleging that she had flouted norms by clearing the purchase without floating tenders. Munde rejected the accusations of corruption and argued that a policy for an online tendering system was not in place when she commissioned the purchase.
After few days, the anti-corruption Bureau of Maharashtra too gave her a clean chit and said the tender was given in compliance with the court’s rules.
