Gopinath Munde finds no place in BJP enclave hoardings

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national conclave being held in Indore bears a strong imprint of Maharashtra. But surprisingly, a bigwig from the state, former deputy CM Gopinath Munde, does not find a place on any of the hoardings put up at the convention site.

Indore has been flooded with BJP hoardings in the wake of the national conclave, and one can easily spot party president Nitin Gadkari, party stalwart LK Advani, leader of opposition Sushama Swaraj and general secretaries Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar’s images on the hoardings. But Munde’s is conspicuous by its absence.

“You will not find any hoarding bearing Munde’s image at the conclave,” said a senior BJP leader from Maharashtra. “I do not know why, but it may because of the groupism,” he said.
On Thursday, when Gadkari was officially declared the president of the party, he was felicitated by the top brass of the party, including Advani and Munde. When Munde garlanded him, Gadkari tried to touch his (Munde’s) feet.

Later, Gadkari said, “No one in our party should touch the feet of the leaders who are not too old. You can touch the feet of Advaniji or Dr Joshiji (Murli Manohar Joshi), but not mine. We are a party with a difference, and we have to show it through our behavior.”