MUMBAI: The BJP faces a leadership crisis in Maharashtra just four months ahead of the assembly elections.Senior leader Gopinath Munde ’s sudden death and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s reluctance to work at the state level has posed a challenge to the party just when it wanted to project itself as the big bother against its alliance partner Shiv Sena and claim a stake for the chief minister’s position.When Shiv Sena recently started projecting party president Uddhav Thackeray as its chief ministerial candidate in Maharashtra, the BJP’s state unit zeroed in on Munde as its best bet for the position.“Gopinath Munde was the name on which all of us agreed,” said Eknath Khadase , the leader of the opposition in Maharashtra assembly.“He was deputy CM in the state during BJP-Shiv Sena’s tenure. Munde had experience as deputy leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and was a mass leader, but now we will have to rethink and work on a new name. The party will hold meetings of the legislature group and go for brainstorming. The central leadership will obviously take the final call,” Khadase added.

Gadkari made it clear on Sunday that he had no plan to return to Maharashtra. “I have been given a very important portfolio in Delhi. There is a lot of work and very big responsibility that has been handed over to me by the Prime Minister. I have no wish to return to Maharashtra right now. The state leadership is capable of handling the campaign and I will always be there to guide them,” he said in Nagpur.

Among the hopefuls in the state are BJP state unit president Devendra Phadanvis and leader of opposition in the state council Vinod Tawde.Phadanvis’ supporters have already raised the slogan “Delhi mein Narendra, Mumbai mein Devendra ( Narendra Modi in Delhi, Devendra in Mumbai)”, but Phadanvis, a Brahmin, may not be acceptable to Khadase and a few others in the party.Phadanvis sounded a cautious note on the issue, saying, “Ultimately the party has to decide about the leadership in Maharashtra. We will work towards bringing a majority in the assembly and then give people good governance.”The BJP is in a peculiar situation, said political analyst and author Prakash Akolkar. “The BJP is facing an unusual a challenge from its own alliance partner Shiv Sena, which has no dispute about who its one leader is. If it becomes clear that the BJP and Sena are in a position to bring the Congress-NCP government down in Maharashtra, the next tussle will be between these two alliance partners for the top (chief minister’s) post,” said Akolkar