Maharahtra: Pankaja Munde says taking break for couple of months, jibes BJP colleagues over silence on NCP developments

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Munde on Friday said she was planning to take a break for «one or two months» as she was anguished at her integrity being questioned time and again. She said her party would have to answer if she had merit and asserted that only time will tell if she was treated unfairly. Munde also panned the media for taking some of her statements out of context or misquoting her, adding that she planned to sue one channel which reported on her meeting Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

In a swipe, the former Parli MLA also said her party colleagues had worked hard on the campaign to highlight nine years of the Narendra Modi government but were not mustering courage to speak on recent developments in Maharashtra, a reference to the NCP split and a faction joining the Eknath Shinde government. The former state minister and daughter of party stalwart late Gopinath Munde said she wanted the BJP's ideology of Deendayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to remain as she had grown up on that sentiment. Addressing a press conference, Munde said post her defeat in the 2019 Assembly polls from Parli, her name came up for nomination to the Rajya Sabha and two times for the Maharashtra Legislative Council but she was asked to not go ahead at the last moment.

«I have never commented on this in public and have obeyed the party directive. i have never worked against the party's interest. Where is politics going...nobody is interested in what people think, I am going to introspect,» she said.