'I may not be qualified enough': Pankaja Munde on missing out on Shinde Cabinet berth

Mumbai, Aug 11: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pankaja Munde on Thursday said she may not have been ''qualified enough'' to get a berth in the newly expanded Maharashtra cabinet.

Nine ministers each from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction and his ally BJP took oath during the first expansion of the ministry earlier this week. But Shinde also received flak as there was not a single woman among them.

Asked about it by reporters, Pankaja, the daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, said, "I may not be qualified enough to be inducted. "Whoever is eligible according to them will be inducted into the cabinet. I have no stand about it. I try to do my politics by maintaining my pride," she added. Munde was a cabinet minister in an earlier BJP-Sena government headed by Devendra Fadnavis.

According to reports, Munde and Union Minister Narayan Rane were missing from the oath ceremony. While Rane was absent due to the death of a close relative, Munde's absence, however, raised eyebrows.

Local media reports, citing Maharashtra leaders, however, cited that the latest expansion is the first phase of rejig within the Maharashtra Cabinet and further expansion, with the inclusion of women ministers is on the cards.