Mumbai: Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Dhananjay Munde has stepped down. Munde had sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ residence, which was handed over by his personal assistant, Prashant Joshi, because Munde was “unwell and could not come in person.” Confirming the resignation, CM Fadnavis said he had accepted it and recommended it to the Governor.
Munde has shrugged off the allegations against his close aide and accused in the Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case, Valmik Karad, and resigned. The images associated with the case made their rounds on social media, adding more pressure on the government. The added scrutiny found Munde and CM Fadnavis meeting late at night, wherein, as per the report, CM asked Munde to step down.
Dhananjay Munde, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, was the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in Maharashtra and an MLA from the Parli constituency in Beed district. He has earlier served as Guardian Minister for Beed. There have been several critical phases in his political career, starting from how he came up in Maharashtra politics, being mentored by Gopinath Munde, to his later roles with Sharad Pawar’s faction of the party.
The murder case dates back to December 9: Masjog village Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh was allegedly abducted and murdered, leading to a political uproar as well as a public outcry. The police recently filed a charge sheet that named Valmik Karad, an aide to Munde, as one of the accused. Opposition parties had been nailing the state government with the slog over the case, claiming that the state was trying to protect the accused.
Visuals of the murder clip circulated widely on social media as the murder case gained momentum amid the controversy. This prompted CM Fadnavis to demand Munde’s resignation from the NCP chief. This controversy not only put Munde, but also Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and the entire Mahayuti alliance in a difficult position.
After resigning, Munde spoke for the first time through a post on social media, saying these findings disturbed him and that action against the murderers of Santosh Deshmukh should be taken in accordance with the law. His health, he said, had been declining for “a couple of days,” and, at the “urging” of his physician, for “health reasons as well,” he stepped down.
Villagers in Masjog assert that Valmik Karad ordered Deshmukh’s death after he opposed a wind energy project in Parli. Allegedly, Deshmukh was vigorously opposing a ₹2 crore extortion demanded over the project.
Dhananjay Munde has had ups and downs in politics. He started as a prominent leader in the Gopinath Munde camp only to join Pawar. His political career continued with comfortable support: he joined the Maharashtra Legislative Council in 2014, where he became Leader of the Opposition. He was first elected in 2019 for the Parli Assembly seat. He was also the backbone during Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in 2019 that lasted only for a handful of hours, and to follow, he bagged a ministerial berth in the Uddhav Thackeray-led cabinet. Munde, who favoured Ajit Pawar when the NCP split in 2023, was again made a minister in the Mahayuti government.
Under Munde, the BJP has refrained from contesting the Parli seat in the 2024 elections. After the new government was formed, he was a minister in the NCP quota and received the Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Protection portfolio.
Munde’s resignation has turned political heat in the state once again, while the Mahayuti government will have to negotiate the choppy waters under mounting opposition pressure.
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