Clip edited, rivals twisted my comment: Dhananjay Munde

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde, who has landed in soup for allegedly making an ‘obscene’ remark against his cousin and rival Pankaja Munde, said on Sunday that ‘new brothers’ in the Bharatiya Janata Party are trying to poison the brother-sister relationship. The incident has left me thinking over whether I should be alive or not, he said.

The NCP leader had allegedly made some obscene remarks against Pankaja at a public meeting held at Vida village in Kej tehsil on October 17.

A video purportedly showing the NCP leader making the remarks against Pankaja has now gone viral on social media.

At Parli, Dhananjay said that the clip has been edited, adding that rivals had distorted his remarks to defame and project him as a ‘villain’. He added that the clip’s authenticity must be tested in a forensic lab.

“My speech at Vida has been tampered with. This is clearly an attempt to make me a villain and win the elections. How could I make such remarks? Though we are political opponents, she is my sister. We have grown up in the same home,” he said.

Both are locked in a fierce battle from Parli constituency for the Assembly polls.

Pankaja, who is a minister in the Cabinet, is the sitting MLA from Parli, and the daughter of late party veteran Gopinath Munde.

“I have not taken the name of my sister. I have never used words that will hamper our relationship. This is an attempt to finish my career. I will never make such comments which harm the dignity of women,” he added.