After the draconian MCOCA was slapped on Walmik Karad – one month and five days after the brutal killing of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh – its imminent fallout on the political career of minister Dhananjay Munde is something to watch out for.

Karad and his supporters formed the backbone of Munde’s political career, especially after he left his late uncle Gopinath Munde a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Ever since he joined the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in July 2013, his network in Parli was mainly supervised by Karad and the team patronised by him.

Right from electioneering to local issues – from tendering processes of the thermal power station in Parli or the development works sanctioned by Munde – Karad’s word used to be final. The political empire developed under Karad’s supervision, say people in Beed district, was so strong that it gave a sensational victory to Munde in the 2019 state assembly election against his cousin Pankaja Munde, the elder daughter and political heir of the late Gopinath Munde.

Now, after the authorities’ decision to apply MCOCA, the network is under threat – a making things difficult for Munde.

The main result of the slapping of MCOCA against Karad and eight others is that it completely diminishes the control of Munde on Beed in general and Parli in particular. Local politicians such as the BJP MLA from Ashti, Suresh Dhas, and the NCP (SP) MLA from Beed City, Sandeep Kshirsagar, have revealed in detail how things were moving when Munde was the district guardian minister in the previous governments led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. The guardian ministership in Beed was rented out to Karad by Munde, Dhas has alleged.

The current developments come as a direct threat to Munde’s political control over the district and rekindle hope for his cousin Pankaja, as she has been keen to take over ever since she lost the 2019 assembly election. Pankaja’s defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election had almost sealed her political career but the BJP decided to nominate her for the state council, paving the way for her swearing-in as minister in the Mahayuti government.

The biggest issue now is whether the BJP wants Pankaja to lead the Beed district politics or wants to loosen the grip of the Mundes. If the BJP-led government decides to appoint an outsider as the district guardian minister, that will make it clear that the party organisation wants to call the shots.

Lastly, Munde has been the face of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in Beed. The latest developments come as a threat to the NCP as well since the party has three MLAs in the district.