A MOVEMENT DIVIDED
CRACKS IN MARATHA BODY WILL LIKELY BRING RELIEF TO THE BJP
TThe Maratha Seva Sangh (MSS), which spearheaded 57 massive marches by the state’s politically influential Maratha community over the past 18 months, is today divided on the road ahead. Two factions are locked in a legal battle in a bid to control Sambhaji Brigade, the social wing of the MSS. The hardline faction led by Praveen Gaikwad favours maintaining the status quo, while the rival group, led by Manoj Akhare, wants to launch the Sambhaji Brigade as a full-fledged political party. The state charity commissioner is expected to deliver a verdict on the dispute in the coming weeks.
Floated two decades ago by Purushottam Khedekar, a former state government employee (the Marathas, incidentally, comprise 12 per cent of state government employees), the Sambhaji Brigade had the stated objective of ‘creating awareness [among Marathas] against the danger from Brahminical forces’. Over the years, the organisation has taken aggressive positions on a number of issues, including the alleged distortion of Maratha history by Brahmin scholars. It also objected to poet Babasaheb Purandare, a Brahmin, being awarded the Maharashtra Bhushan, the highest state award, in 2015. Since 2016, the Sambhaji Brigade—which has around 100,000 active members—has been vociferously demanding reservations for the Maratha community.
The first cracks in the organisation were visible last November, when the Akhare faction fought local body elections. The rift deepened after Akhare’s nominees failed to register even a single win. Gaikwad says the move demoralised the workers. “Our organisation has always criticised politicians, it is not surprising that people did not accept us as politicians,” he says. And without any financial backing, he says, those who contested polls ended up in debt. Gaikwad, who claims “the backing of 90 per cent of the workers”, has since teamed up with the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). Insisting that the Sambhaji Brigade must retain its character as a social organisation, he says, “in association with PWP, we will continue to fight against Brahminical and Hindutvawadi forces”.
Earlier, Maratha political organisations like the Shiv Dharma Party and Chhavaa Sanghatana, too, had failed to make a dent in the core Maratha vote bank of the Congress and NCP. This time, however, observers believe, the political aspirations of the Marathas could end up helping the ruling BJP, more recently regarded as an enemy of the community.
A close aide of Khedekar points to his speech in Shirdi some months ago, where he openly supported a BJP-Shiv Sena government after 2019. These are signs which way he is leaning. The Sambhaji Brigade founder also showed up at three recent events alongside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. On his part, Fadnavis has promised Rs 200 crore for a grand memorial Khedekar plans to build for Shivaji’s mother Jijabai. Fadnavis and Gadkari attended the MSS’s state conclave last August and the inauguration of the Baliraja Research Institute at Nagpur in December. The institute will conduct research on the works of nonBrahminical scholars.
Gaikwad, however, rules out the possibility of a rapprochement with the BJP. “The Congress, NCP and PWP will have a joint front against the BJP. We will stop the division of votes,” he says. However, the rift in the MSS could only be good news for Fadnavis and the BJP, especially at a time when there has been so much unrest in rural Maharashtra.