The Hindu : Munde, 'president-elect'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 25, 2003

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National

Munde, 'president-elect'

By Arunkumar Bhatt

AURANGABAD AUG. 24. With the Maharashtra BJP's presidential poll to be held here tomorrow, filing of nominations is supposed to have started today. The nominations are to be scrutinised tomorrow morning and voting is to take place soon thereafter should there be more than one candidate.

Prakash Jawadekar, party spokesman, told reporters in Mumbai last Friday that the BJP's central general secretary, Mukhtar Abbas, would supervise the process.

But in reality, the leadership has already selected the party's all-India vice-president and leader of the legislative wing, Gopinath Munde, as the new State chief. The elaborate electoral process is only for public consumption.

The selection was, however, not kept under wraps. After his press briefing last Friday the spokesman had confirmed speculation that Mr. Munde would be the president of the State BJP. To back his statement, he said Mr. Munde's presidential speech was getting printed.

Soon thereafter other party leaders converted their "president-select" into "president-elect" by hailing Mr. Munde as the right choice. Normally, such sentiments are expressed after an official declaration of the choice.

Mr. Munde's counterpart in the State Legislative Council, Nitin Gadkari, said that he was also well-versed in the problems farmers, rural folks and backward communities faced. Another "heavyweight" in the party, Eknath Khadse, called him a gallant leader who could speak against organised crime and terrorism.

This will be Mr. Munde's second term. He had headed the State party during 1986-1992. His aggressive campaign against the then Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar, paid handsome dividends in 1995.

The reason behind his selection now is that many expect a repeat performance though there are some who point out that his charisma did not work well in 1999 and the party was pushed down to the fourth position.

Mr. Munde replaces Pandurang Phundkar, one of the most low-profile presidents of the party's State unit, who had come with the slogan, "100 per cent BJP".

Mr. Phundkar has been totally overshadowed by Mr. Munde and his high-profile brother-in-law, Pramod Mahajan, giving credence to the view that his election only makes a ground reality official.

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