MH-PANKAJA

Pankaja Munde skips Maha BJP's core committee meeting
    Mumbai, Dec 10 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former
Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde on Tuesday remained absent
from the party's state unit core committee meeting here,
claiming she needed time to oversee preparations for her
public address in Gopinathgad in Beed on December 12.
    Munde, who has been holding a public rally every year
on the birth anniversary of her father and former Union
minister, the late Gopinath Munde, was absent from the
division-level meetings of the BJP as well.
    She did not attend the party's regional-level meeting
held in Aurangabad on Monday either though state BJP chief
Chandrakant Patil said she was "unwell" and hence could not
take part in the meet.
    Munde skipped Tuesday's meeting of the state BJP core
committee in Mumbai on the ground she was busy with
preparations for her rally in Gopinathgad in Beed on December
12.
    She was defeated by cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay
Munde from Parli in the October Assembly polls, and there has
been speculation that she was unhappy with the BJP.
    Another BJP leader, Eknath Khadse, is also said to
exploring other options.
    Khadse, however, said here he was not unhappy with his
party.
    Khadse, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said he will
take part in Munde's 'Swabhiman' rally at Gopinathgad. PTI ND
BNM
RSY RSY

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)