A day after she filed her nomination from Beed, Dr Pritam Munde was in her element. At a public meeting, she launched a scathing attack on her opponents; her main target was her cousin Dhananjay Munde of the NCP, the opposition leader in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. “My opponents must have cataract if they cannot see the work I have done in the constituency. Their eardrums must be ruptured if they cannot hear what people are saying about my work,” she bellowed. “But, I will tell them not to worry. I will arrange to remove the cataract and treat their eardrums at the mega health camp that we organise under the aegis of Gopinath Munde Pratishthan.”
Pritam’s foray into politics was sudden—she contested the Lok Sabha bypoll on a BJP ticket after her father, Gopinath Munde, died in a car accident in June 2014. Till then, Pritam, a dermatologist, had no interest in politics. “I realised that my father was someone special only after he became deputy chief minister in 1995 and we moved to Mumbai from our native place,” she told THE WEEK. She did not even campaign for her elder sister, Pankaja, in the 2009 assembly polls as she was doing her postgraduation. Munde wanted her to be a doctor and work at the JJ hospital because a large number of people from Beed would go there for treatment.
Her candidature came as a surprise to her. “I could not believe it,” said Pritam. “My sister also never told me as she is a strict professional.” She realised that she had to live up to people’s expectations. “I had seen my father working tirelessly for people, but seeing is one thing and actually learning to do it is another,” she said. But, people made her feel comfortable on the campaign trail as they loved her father, she said. And, she won with a record margin of votes.
Being Munde’s daughter helped her in Delhi, too—people across party lines were there to guide her and were friendly. Her first speech in Parliament was in February 2015 after the Railway budget, where she argued strongly for a rail link from Ahmednagar to Parali via Beed. Almost Rs1,000 crore was allotted for the proposed rail link. She has also raised other issues like the drought in Marathwada, farmers issues and those related to the welfare of the other backward classes.
When she is not in Parliament, Pritam is either in Mumbai or in Beed. She does not go to parties, and prefers to either eat out with family—she loves jalebis—or go for a movie (last film she saw: Uri). “My son, Agastya, is six, and I like to spend time with him and read to him,” she said. “I am a book lover and am currently reading Shriman Yogi, a book on the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, for the second time.”
Her opponent in this election is NCP’s Bajrang Sonwane. Unlike in 2014, there is no sympathy wave for her this time. But, Pritam is confident of winning because of the work done by her and Pankaja, who is Beed’s guardian minister. She is not bothered about her cousin’s campaign against her. “He has always spoken against us,” she said. “So, we are used to it now. Even people do not give him much importance.”
DR PRITAM MUNDE, 36
EDUCATION
MD (dermatology, venereology and leprosy), Dr D.Y. Patil Medical College, Navi Mumbai
POLITICAL LINKS
Father, Gopinath Munde, was former Union minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra; sister, Pankaja, is state rural development minister and Beed’s guardian minister