 "Pankaja Munde")
Pankaja Munde-Palve's 18 months as the rural development minister in the Maharashtra government have not been easy. The eldest of the three daughters of the late Gopinath Munde, one of the tallest leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the state, she has found herself embroiled in one controversy after another since the Devendra Fadnavis-led government came to power in October 2014.
After her father's death in June 2014 in an accident, Munde-Palve, then an MLA from the Parli constituency, campaigned hard for her party in the assembly elections, travelling 3,500 km across the state to address 600 rallies in 79 constituencies. It was soon acknowledged that she had inherited her father's ability to connect with the masses. Her supporters even demanded that the two-time legislator be made the chief minister.
A year-and-a-half later, her father's admirers are now saying that she has shown political immaturity. This disillusionment was accentuated by the recent controversy when she was caught clicking and posting a selfie on Twitter while on a tour to drought-hit Latur. The social media outrage was immediate and she was criticised for indulging in "drought tourism".
The intensity of criticism might have something to do with her lineage. Her father was a grassroots leader who put BJP on the electoral map of Maharashtra. If Sharad Pawar was the unquestioned leader of the dominant Marathas, Munde carved out a space for himself and his party among the backward castes, like the Vanjara (his community), the Mali and the Dhangar. Munde was a leader of the farmers, the poor and the backward castes. Munde-Palve was expected to fill in his shoes.
Munde-Palve, 36, is among the rising quartet of women dynasts in Maharashtra politics. She shares that space with her sister, Pritam, her first cousin, Poonam Mahajan, and Pawar's daughter, Supriya Sule, all of whom are Lok Sabha members. Of them all, Munde-Palve is looked at as a mass leader. BJP President Amit Shah had recognised this when he sent her on a yatra across the state after her father's death - unofficially crowning her as his successor.
While not offered the chief ministerial chair, she was entrusted with important portfolios such as rural development, water conservation, employment guarantee scheme and women and child development. She is also the guardian minister of Latur and its neighbour, Beed (once her father's and now her sister's constituency).
Ever since, she has made headlines for the wrong reasons. Within months of taking over as a minister, she was accused of passing contracts worth ~206 crore for the purchase of chikki candy and khichdi for anganwadi children in a single day. The produce was allegedly found to be of poor quality.
Then, probably unmindful of the scrutiny that a politician is subjected to in the age of camera phones, she was clicked wading barefoot through a muddy stretch on a visit to the Parbhani district with someone carrying her footwear. She said the person wasn't a government staffer but a private employee. There have also been allegations that her ministry flouted rules, which she denied, to award a dam construction project.
Recently, a newspaper reported that even after more than a year of becoming a minister she had continued to be on the boards of companies owned by her husband. The model code of conduct demands that ministers quit such posts within two months of taking over their new responsibility. She was also criticised for stating that water supply to breweries and distilleries in Maharashtra's drought-hit areas should continue. It was pointed out that her husband, Amit Palve, is a director in an Aurangabad-based distillery and that she herself was on its board till June 2014.
Munde-Palve has tried to defend herself through every crisis. For the benefit of those who criticised her selfie moment, she said: "Thank you my Beed people. I won by-election against all odds. Really public decides. Final judge is grassroots people. Last 40 years they have blessed us (the Munde family)."
Munde-Palve would hope that the people of Beed would not forget her father in a hurry and give her a chance while she takes her time to learn the ropes.
