All's well in BJP after Munde meets Gadkari

Put on hold after Gopinath Munde's outburst against detractors in party last month, his long-pending meeting with the party chief materialises in Delhi; differences resolved

Curtains were supposedly drawn over the high-voltage drama involving BJP president Nitin Gadkari and veteran leader Gopinath Munde after a prolonged meeting recently held in New Delhi to resolve the differences between the two.


At the meeting, Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari addressed
their grievances towards one another and tried to mend the
rift in the party

The meeting, that was planned to address the grievances of a sulking Munde and avoid a damaging rift in the BJP, had been on hold since July, after certain remarks by the party's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha upset the party chief.

Soon after his return from Delhi in July, Munde had said at Mumbai airport that he had shown his party detractors their place, a statement which Gadkari did not approve of, and he made his displeasure clear at the closed-doors meeting that lasted over two hours at his residence, highly-placed sources in the party said.

For his part, Munde is believed to have pointed out various developments in the party, in which his close aides and supporters were being sidelined, sources said, adding that the intra-party differences had been reconciled.

Gadkari had promised the meeting to hear Munde out, after the latter's nominee to the post of Pune BJP chief, Yogesh Gogawale, was given the short shrift in June.

The party, instead, decided to appoint Vikas Mathkari, leading Munde to rebel, and meet senior Congress and Shiv Sena leaders, generating talks that he was quitting the party.

Meanwhile, even before reports of Gadkari-Munde meeting were out, Madhusudan Kendre, son-in-law of Munde's elder brother, Panditanna, has announced his decision to quit the BJP.

Chairman of Gangakhed Municipal Council in Parbhani district of Marathwada region, Kendre has alleged a conspiracy to neglect him in local party affairs.