The News Minute | June 17, 2014 | 1.13 pm ISTPankaja Munde, daughter of late BJP leader and Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Gopinath Munde, has stated that she is ready to take over her father’s political career. A Times of India report quotes an emotional Pankaja Munde, while speaking to supporters, as saying, “After his death I wanted to leave everything. I felt like I have lost everything in life and there is no point in continuing in public life. However, my family mentors and others insisted that we have to continue my father's work. He has a left a huge chunk of supporters who are feeling helpless. As his daughter, now it is my responsibility to be with you.â€It has been two weeks since the senior BJP leader died in a car accident, leaving the party stunned. Supporters of Munde and party leaders including party State President Devendra Fadnavis, have been demanding a cabinet berth for Pankaja at the centre. The Beed parliamentary constituency, which Munde won from in both 2009 and 2014, has now fallen vacant after his sudden demise. There is speculation that she may contest the Lok Sabha by-elections from Beed and also that Munde supporters would rather want her to continue with state politics if she is not inducted in the Cabinet.Pankaja, who is currently an MLA from Parli constituency and also the state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, has always been considered as Munde’s heir apparent. She is credited for the successful campaigning for her father during the 2014 Lok Sabha Election. In fact, so popular a figure is she in the state, that people often introduce her as “BJP's Jhansi ki Rani in Beed, a lone soldier against the NCP's war veterans,†according to a Firstpost report. Requests have also been made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include Pankaja in the Cabinet. However, the solid support that Pankaja enjoys from party loyalists may not make much of a difference at the Centre. Some party leaders are of the opinion that the prime minister may not accept this request as “he is against promoting kin of BJP leaders to ministerial ranksâ€, according to another The Times of India report. There has been no comment on the issue from the centre yet. Pankaja's political career is likely to see a rise, irrespective of the centre's decision, as she prepares to follow in her father's footsteps.