Mumbai, Aug 2026 : A fresh political controversy erupted in Maharashtra after senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan claimed that late BJP leader Gopinath Munde had once considered joining the Congress, prompting a strong rebuttal from Munde’s daughter and Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde.
Chavan claimed that he was aware of discussions surrounding the alleged possibility during his tenure as Maharashtra Chief Minister. According to him, several rounds of talks had taken place between Gopinath Munde and veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
Chavan further claimed that Munde had sought a position in the Union Cabinet as a condition for switching political sides. He said the proposal was subsequently discussed with then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had reportedly given her in-principle approval.
However, Chavan said the proposal ultimately failed to move forward because then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was opposed to the idea of bringing an Opposition MP into the ruling party and subsequently inducting him into the Union Cabinet.
According to Chavan, Singh was not comfortable with the idea of “poaching” an Opposition leader and making him a Union minister. His objection, Chavan claimed, eventually brought the proposal to an end.
The remarks triggered a sharp response from Pankaja Munde, who dismissed the claim and questioned its relevance.
Pankaja, who has continued to be associated with the BJP, said her father had a deep and longstanding relationship with the party and rejected any suggestion that he had entered the BJP after switching from another political organisation.
“The statement made by Prithviraj Chavan no longer holds any significance,” Pankaja said while speaking to reporters. She added that, as far as she understood her father, he was “born into this very ‘lotus’, the BJP, and he remained in it.”
She also objected to the suggestion that Gopinath Munde could have been “imported” into the BJP or shifted between political camps, stressing his longstanding ideological and organisational association with the party.
Gopinath Munde was one of the BJP’s prominent leaders in Maharashtra and played a significant role in building the party’s political base in the state. He later served as Union Minister for Rural Development after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.
Munde died in a road accident in New Delhi on June 3, 2014, shortly after taking charge as a Union minister.
Chavan’s latest remarks have now revived discussion around the political equations involving Munde during the final years of his career. Pankaja’s response, meanwhile, underlines the continuing sensitivity surrounding her father’s political legacy and his long association with the BJP.
