'They call me a rebel,' Pankaja Munde dares BJP to dump her

Mumbai: Categorically stating that she would not quit the BJP, senior leader and former minister Pankaja Munde-Palwe on Thursday launched a veiled attacked on the party leadership and even challenged it openly to sack her.

At a huge show of strength organised by her supporters to mark the 70th birth anniversary of her father, the late Union Minister Gopinath Munde, who passed away five years ago, Pankaja threw the gauntlet at her detractors and the party leadership alike, at Gopinathgad in Munde family's stronghold.

"Loss in one election does not bother me. Circumstances are being created that I should quit. But I am not going to leave the party.

However, if the party wants to 'leave' me, it can take a decision," she said in the presence of several top BJP leaders, including state unit President Chandrakant Patil.

"I am being labelled as 'ambitious' who tried to 'pressurise' the party. Some are spreading the rumours that I want to be the Chief Minister.

I never uttered any such thing. But is it wrong to be ambitious? Can't a woman lead the state," Pankaja demanded.

"I served as a minister for five years, but I am no longer a minister, not even a legislator, nor a corporator. From today, I am not even a part of the (BJP) Core Committee. They call me a rebel.

Do you think (India's) Independence would have been possible without defying the authorities or revolting," she asked.

Dropping broad hints, Pankaja said that she was not angling for the post of state party chief or Leader of Opposition, but certain persons were creating a situation to push her and others like her out of the BJP.

She said that the party doesn't belong to any single individual, but to all its workers, and it belonged to her father (the late Gopinath Munde) who helped build up the BJP in a big way in the state, as the gathering applauded.