Gopinath Munde summoned to Delhi

Pune, Apr 21 : Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Gopinath Munde, who had resigned from his post on Sunday, has reportedly been summoned to Delhi.

"Some of the top party leaders, including party president Rajnath Singh, vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Arun Jaitley have spoken to Munde on phone and asked him not to precipitate matters and come to Delhi to talk about his problems," a senior BJP leader said. Meanwhile, expressing solidarity with Munde, sixteen BJP corporators of Pune civic body have sent in their resignations to Rajnath Singh. Their loyalties would remain with Munde and they would follow the path shown by him in the future, the corporators said.

Resenting the lack of democracy in BJP, Munde had reportedly expressed his displeasure over the appointment of Madhu Chavan, a close confidant of Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari, as president of the Mumbai BJP party unit. He wanted Kirit Somaya to be the Mumbai party chief.

According to party sources, a bitter battle has been raging between Munde and Nitin Gadkari over several party decisions taken with relation to Maharashtra.

ANI