Could Dhananjay Munde’s Exit Cause BJP-NCP Rift and Turmoil Within Mahayuti in Maharashtra?

On March 4, Dhananjay Munde, Maharashtra’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister and an influential Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, resigned from his post in Mumbai after an 80-day-long media and public outcry brought out disturbing evidence in the Santosh Deshmukh murder case, a sarpanch from Massajog village in Beed district. Photographs attached to the charge sheet—which were widely circulated on March 3—allegedly show Munde’s supporters desecrating Deshmukh’s body. The charge sheet names Munde’s close aide, Walmik Karad, as the mastermind behind the crime. This exposé led Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to demand Munde’s resignation, marking the end of intense speculation over how the scandal would force him to step down.

Deshmukh was killed on December 9, 2024. He was the sarpanch there and popular among the youth. The brutality of the incident had brought renewed attention to lawlessness in Beed district. Details of Deshmukh’s murder were first brought to public attention by NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader and MLA Jitendra Awhad. During the Assembly’s winter session, Awhad delivered a detailed speech describing the inhumane manner in which Deshmukh was killed. Around the same time, Suresh Dhas, the BJP MLA from Beed, also spoke about it in the Assembly. Chief Minister Fadnavis, who also holds the Home Ministry portfolio, announced an investigation by the Crime Investigation Department (CID). Since then, the Opposition has repeatedly called for Munde’s resignation.

A caste angle further complicated the murder. Deshmukh was Maratha, while all the accused are from the Vanjari (semi-nomadic, OBC) community. Dhananjay Munde is also a Vanjari. Beed district is part of Marathwada, which, along with neighbouring Jalna, has been the epicentre of the Maratha vs OBC tensions for the past 18 months. These districts are central to the Maratha reservation demand and protests. In the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Marathas largely opposed the BJP, although the party managed to unite non-Maratha groups in the Assembly election. Against this political backdrop, Deshmukh’s murder heightened caste tensions.

Also Read | Devendra in Davos: Investment or image building?

Munde is seen as a Vanjari leader, and his community wields influence in nearly 35 Assembly constituencies. Although he is an NCP leader under Ajit Pawar, he has also been close to Fadnavis—making his delayed resignation a matter of prestige for the government and his supporters.

Once the CID filed its charge sheet, it became impossible for the Mahayuti government to continue defending Munde. The charge sheet included video footage and photographs of the murder. Public outrage was immediate, especially on social media. Anticipating the fallout, Fadnavis reached out to his deputy, Ajit Pawar. According to sources, the Chief Minister visited Ajit Pawar’s official residence, Devgiri, on March 3, where NCP leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, and Munde himself were present. Fadnavis reportedly explained the gravity of the situation and advised Munde to resign immediately. By March 4, Munde had no choice but to step down.

Ties across the political spectrum

Dhananjay Munde was known to be close to Ajit Pawar and instrumental in the latter’s rebellion against his uncle, Sharad Pawar. It is said that Patel, Tatkare, and Munde planned and executed Ajit Pawar’s defection. Munde’s ties to both Ajit Pawar and Fadnavis had helped him for the past 15 years, but as public pressure mounted, they too recognised their limitations and distanced themselves.

On his resignation, Dhananjay Munde said: “I believe the killers of Santosh Deshmukh should be hanged. I was deeply disturbed by the photos that surfaced yesterday. Now that the investigation is complete and the charge sheet has been filed, I have full faith in the court. Therefore, as my conscience dictates—and because I have been unwell for the past few days—I have decided to step back. I have resigned and submitted my resignation to the Chief Minister.”

Accepting the resignation, Fadnavis stated: “I have forwarded the resignation to the Governor for further process. Dhananjay Munde has been relieved of all his responsibilities.”

The Opposition welcomed Munde’s resignation but questioned the motives of both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. Congress State chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said, “The photos the media showed were from the charge sheet. The Chief Minister, who is also the Home Minister, must have seen these photos two months ago. The same applies to Ajit Pawar. Why did they protect the Minister until now? They need to answer this.”

Awhad said the fight for justice for Santosh Deshmukh does not end with Munde’s resignation: “He [Dhananjay Munde] should have been sacked by the CM long ago. Still, better late than never. But now there should be an investigation into all allegations of wrongdoing during his tenure as Agriculture Minister. Walmik Karad, the mastermind of Deshmukh’s murder, was Munde’s close aide, and he was essentially running the show when Munde was Minister.”

Rise and fall of Dhananjay Munde

Dhananjay is the nephew of the late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde. When Gopinath became a prominent State-level leader, he entrusted Beed district’s affairs to his brother, Pandit Anna Munde, who was Dhananjay’s father. Growing up in a political household, Dhananjay became active in the BJP from a young age. In the early 2000s, he was appointed State chief of the BJP’s youth wing. However, he aspired to become an MLA.

In 2009, Gopinath Munde won the Lok Sabha seat from Beed. Dhananjay reportedly hoped his uncle would let him contest from the Parli Assembly constituency, but instead, Gopinath fielded his daughter, Pankaja Munde, who won that year. Feeling slighted, Dhananjay distanced himself from his uncle. At the time, Nitin Gadkari was the BJP’s national president and was at odds with Gopinath Munde. Their rivalry paved the way for Dhananjay to secure a ticket in the 2010 Maharashtra Legislative Council election.

That election proved a turning point. While Gopinath Munde got along with neither Gadkari nor Sharad Pawar, the State’s politics was largely split between Pawar and Munde factions. When Gadkari—despite Gopinath’s lack of support—gave Dhananjay the ticket, Ajit Pawar stepped in to help Dhananjay. Ajit Pawar, then overseeing the united NCP’s State affairs, reportedly directed four MLAs to give Dhananjay their first-preference votes and more than 10 others to vote for him as their second preference. This was decisive, enabling Dhananjay to win the tightly contested election and cementing his friendship with Ajit Pawar.

Sidelined within the Munde faction, Dhananjay left the BJP in 2011. Ajit Pawar wanted him in the NCP, but Sharad Pawar hesitated, fearing the move would be seen as breaking up the Munde family—and thus help Gopinath Munde politically. After nearly a year, Dhananjay’s father met Sharad Pawar to make a personal appeal, and Dhananjay finally joined the NCP.

In 2014, Dhananjay ran for the Parli seat against his cousin Pankaja. However, Gopinath Munde’s sudden death in a road accident in New Delhi led to a wave of sympathy that helped Pankaja win. That same year, the BJP took power in Maharashtra, and Pankaja became a Minister in Devendra Fadnavis’s first Cabinet. Although Dhananjay lost, he was still in the Legislative Council. The NCP made him the Leader of Opposition there.

During this period, Pankaja saw herself as a potential Chief Minister, making her a rival to Fadnavis. Fadnavis then strategically backed Dhananjay to counter Pankaja. As a result, in the 2019 Assembly election, Dhananjay defeated her—marking the start of a cross-party friendship between Dhananjay and Fadnavis.

2019: The year that changed Maharashtra

The year 2019 brought unprecedented changes to Maharashtra politics. After the Assembly election in October, the united Shiv Sena split from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and allied with the Congress and the NCP to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Yet, before Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray could take oath as Chief Minister, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar briefly formed a government lasting just 72 hours. This so-called “dawn swearing-in ceremony” shook national politics and made the fault lines in the NCP public. Ajit Pawar reportedly coordinated much of this from Dhananjay’s official residence, leveraging Munde’s closeness to Fadnavis. The short-lived government collapsed, paving the way for Thackeray’s tenure. A month later, Ajit Pawar became Deputy Chief Minister under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), and Munde took charge as the Social Justice Minister.

By 2022, Shiv Sena leader and then Home Minister Eknath Shinde had rebelled against Thackeray, toppling the MVA government by joining hands with the BJP and assuming the post of Chief Minister with Fadnavis as deputy. In 2023, Ajit Pawar split from Sharad Pawar and joined the Shinde-led Mahayuti (grand alliance) government, where Dhananjay was appointed Agriculture Minister, raising his stature further. (Subsequently, the Election Commission of India awarded the party names and symbols of the Shiv Sena and the NCP to the breakaway factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar respectively.)

Reports suggested his behaviour changed; close associates described him as becoming “unconcerned” about his surroundings. One ally told Frontline: “He started feeling that with both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar—his close friends—in power, they would protect him at all costs.” During this period, Walmik Karad allegedly ran much of the Agriculture Ministry’s affairs, causing discontent among officials and politicians alike.

In 2024, Dhananjay was reelected with the State’s third-highest margin—1,40,000 votes—on November 23. Fadnavis was sworn in as Chief Minister again on December 5, and just four days later (December 9), Santosh Deshmukh was murdered. Despite calls not to include Dhananjay in the Cabinet, both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar ignored these demands, and on December 15, he took oath even as he faced allegations in the Deshmukh murder case.

Initially, the BJP and NCP leadership tried to weather the scandal. They eventually withheld the Guardian Minister post for Beed from Munde, handing it to Ajit Pawar instead. Yet the outrage persisted, and the incriminating photographs in the charge sheet proved the last straw, forcing Munde to resign.

After Gopinath Munde, Dhananjay remained immensely popular within the Vanjari community—a core BJP voter base for three decades. Perennial caste tensions in Marathwada have made every incident subject to a caste-based lens, and Deshmukh’s murder was no exception. Despite the grave details of the case, Dhananjay still enjoys strong support among Vanjaris, making his removal both inevitable and risky for the BJP and NCP leadership.

A blow to Mahayuti’s image

Even so, his resignation does not close the chapter. Both Munde and Fadnavis, along with Ajit Pawar, know this. After losing the Assembly election badly, the Opposition was disheartened and fractured, but this episode has revitalised it. It now sees that a government with a commanding majority (237 out of 288 seats) can still be pushed back under intense scrutiny.

Also Read | Mahayuti’s vote-winning cash scheme for poor women shrinks under financial strain

For the Mahayuti, recovering from this blow to its image is crucial. Another Minister from Ajit Pawar’s NCP, Manikrao Kokate, is under fire after a local court found him guilty in a 1995 case, now pending in the High Court. The Opposition is already demanding Kokate’s resignation, creating another brewing crisis for Fadnavis.

Evidently, a bigger issue for the Mahayuti now is trust. Munde’s resignation raised questions about whether the BJP aims to curtail Ajit Pawar’s faction. Reports suggest Fadnavis has begun reviewing decisions made by Eknath Shinde when he was Chief Minister. Moreover, one Minister’s exit from Ajit Pawar’s group and another Minister under scrutiny are feeding suspicions that these are not mere coincidences. Such trust deficits may already be undermining the government’s foundations, making Munde’s departure a serious setback for the Mahayuti.