Munde meets Venkaiah, Ananth; Gadkari stays away

New Delhi, Jun 18 (PTI) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leader Gopinath Munde, sulking over some decisions taken
in his own state Maharashtra, on Friday held discussions with
senior party colleagues M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar but
party President Nitin Gadkari stayed away from the exercise.
Gadkari, who also hails from Maharashtra (western
Indian state) and with whom Munde is said to have strong
differences, may meet the disgruntled leader here in a bid to
sort out the issues raised by the latter.
Gadkari was scheduled to attend the meeting of the
central leadership with Munde here on Friday. While senior
leaders L K Advani, Naidu and Kumar were in the national
capital, Gadkari was away in Dehradun holding a meeting with
Uttarakhand (northern Indian state and a BJP ruled state)
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and state ministers.
After a two-and-half-hour meeting with Naidu and Kumar,
Munde indicated the differences had not been sorted out yet.
"The meetings with senior party leaders will continue
tomorrow," he said.
Naidu, however, appeared hopeful that the differences
will be sorted out by Sunday.
"We have held positive and healthy talks with our senior
BJP leader from Maharashtra Gopinath Munde. We are hopeful of
an amicable solution after meetings with senior BJP leaders
Gadkari and Advani," Naidu said.
Leader of the Opposition in Mahaharashtra Eknath Khadse
and his counterpart in Legislative Council Pandurang
Phundkar were also present in the meeting.
"Although Munde has no personal problems, the grievances
aired by him are those of party workers in the state," Naidu
said, adding "Gopinath ji is our senior party leader and we do
not wish that he nurtures any pain. We will sort out
everything by tomorrow".

Munde, a prominent OBC (other backward caste) leader
from Maharashtra, is said to be unpset since his supporter
Yogesh Gogawale was sidelined for the post of Pune BJP
president and Gadkari loyalist Vikas Mathkari was appointed
instead.
Munde, BJP's Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, has been
conveying his unhappiness by skipping some party meetings and
other programmes in the state recently.
Asked whether there was a possibility of him leaving
the BJP, Munde said "there is no reason for asking this
question."