Mumbai: Finally, Dhananjay Munde submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister after months of pressure from political and social organisations that had been demanding accountability for the murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. The resignation comes a day after photos of the murder victim, which were part of the chargesheet, went viral. That turned out to be the final blow for the minister.
Dhananjay Munde, 49, is the MLA from the Parli constituency in Beed district. The nephew of late BJP veteran Gopinath Munde, a popular leader who served as Union Minister, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and was also a Lok Sabha MP. Munde began his career working with his uncle, Gopinath Munde, and helping manage the family's political interests in Beed. He also marked himself out as an excellent orator. Indeed, many even saw him as the senior BJP leader's 'heir apparent'.
But that changed in 2009, after Gopinath Munde picked his daughter, Pankaja, to represent the family seat of Parli. Then with the BJP, the party offered him a position in the Legislative Council. But the relationship never really recovered, and in 2012 he switched to the NCP, which was then led by Sharad Pawar. Munde's father, Panditrao Munde, made the same jump months before. Dhananjay Munde contested the 2014 election against his cousin but lost. He regrouped and returned five years later, flipping a defeat by 26,000 votes into a victory by more than 40,000.
In 2023 he sided with Ajit Pawar in his rebellion against his uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar. The younger Pawar was reportedly keen on signing Munde on to diversify his NCP faction's identity as more than a Maratha-centric political outfit. In return, Munde has been seen as an Ajit Pawar loyalist.
In the previous government, led by Eknath Shinde, Dhanjay Munde served as the Agriculture Minister from July 2023 to November 2024, when the Assembly election was held. During that time he was also the 'guardian minister' for Beed district. Munde was also a cabinet member when Uddhav Thackeray, boss of the then-undivided Shiv Sena, was Chief Minister. Thackeray led an alliance of the Sena, the then undivided NCP, and the Congress. He was then Minister for Social Justice and Special Assistance.
Munde has often faced controversial situations in a career spanning nearly two decades, including charges of rape in January 2021. These were made by a popular singer but later withdrawn. Munde denied all allegations and stared down the opposition's calls to quit.
But the graph of Dhananjay Munde started declining in December last year. Walmik Karad, the prime accused in the torture and murder of the sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, is a confidante of Munde, and it was that closeness that gave the opposition enough ammunition to press for the NCP leader's sacking. As controversy over the sarpanch's murder grew, in January Munde said he would have no problem resigning if asked to, either by CM Fadnavis or Ajit Pawar. On Tuesday he got the categorical message through which he was relinquished from the coveted post and was shown the door.
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