MUMBAI: Senior BJP legislator Pandurang Phundkar on Friday revealed that the late party leader Gopinath Munde had considered joining the Congress in 2012 because he was feeling “suffocated” at that time.
“The Congress hadpromised him two berths, one each in Union Cabinet and State Cabinet,” Phundkar said in the Legislative Council.
He was speaking during a resolution adopted by the Council to show gratitude towards Munde.
The House had earlier passed a resolution expressing grief over Munde’s demise.
However, it passed another resolution after the BJP members alleged that the Government deliberately passed it when they were away from the proceedings, attending Munde’s funeral.
Phundkar said that he felt suffocated in the BJP because he was asked not to take interest in the party’s affairs in Maharashtra.
Incidentally, his bete noire Nitin Gadkari was the party’s national president at that time.
“I persuaded him not to join the Congress. I told him that no one will follow him. He agreed to this, but always blamed me for changing the decision. Whenever he felt insulted, Munde saheb reminded me that I had stopped him from leaving the party. He used to share his pain with me,” Phundkar said.
A senior legislator from the Legislative Assembly corroborated Phundkar’s statement.
He said, “Whatever he has said is absolutely correct. But, he should have avoided revealing it in public. Munde saheb had prepared to hold a rally in Aurangabad to announce his exit from the BJP. We persuaded him against it.”