Maharashtra Minister Dhananjay Munde resigned on Tuesday amid the uproar over the Massajog sarpanch murder case.
Following the resignation, Munde said that it had been his demand from the very first day that the accused in the Beed Sarpanch murder case should get the harshest punishment.
In a post on X, Munde also mentioned that he has submitted his resignation as state minister due to health concerns and medical advice “as well”.
“My firm demand from the very first day has been that the accused in the brutal murder of the late Santosh Deshmukh from Massajog in Beed district should receive the harshest possible punishment. Seeing the photos that came up yesterday has deeply pained my heart,” he said.
What is the Beed murder case he is acquitted in?
Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, Maharashtra, was murdered on December 9 after he allegedly opposed an extortion attempt targeting an energy firm installing windmills in the village. The alleged accused said to be Munde’s aide Walmik Karad, was sent to judicial custody in January.
It is to be noted that Munde is not directly involved in the case.
Who is Dhananjay Munde?
The 49-year-old Munde, a trusted aide of Ajit Pawar, was initially mentored by BJP leader Gopinath Munde. Though he started as a party worker, he quickly rose to the position of BJYM president in 2007. A skilled orator, he managed Gopinath’s political interests in Beed and Parli, earning the image of his uncle’s “political heir.”
But things changed after Gopinath chose his daughter Pankaja to contest from Parli in 2009. Meanwhile, in 2010, the BJP appointed Dhananjay to the state Legislative Council
As tensions escalated, Dhananjay switched to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2012, following his father, Panditrao Munde, who did the same earlier that year. He contested the 2014 Assembly polls against Pankaja but lost by over 25,000 votes. In 2019, he turned the tables, defeating her by more than 30,000 votes.
In the wake of the NCP’s split in 2023, Dhananjay sided with the Ajit Pawar-led faction aligned with the Mahayuti. In Assembly polls last year, he retained Parli by over 1.4 lakh votes. He is one of the few OBC leaders in the NCP after Chaggan Bhujbal.
