Shadow of Maratha quota agitation, Pawar vs Pawar battle loom large
Eleven constituencies of Maharashtra, including high-pro„le seats of Beed and Pune, go to the polls in the fourth phase; quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s protests help galvanise the push for Maratha reservation, resulting in a sharp Maratha versus OBC
The spectre of the Maratha quota agitation hovers over several electoral battles as 11 key seats in Maharashtra goes to polls in phase four of the general election on May 13.
The seats that are located in the State’s arid, economically backward Marathwada region, the prosperous western part and north Maharashtra, will also feel the eect of the splits in the Shiv Sena ( June 2022) and the Nationalist Congress Party ( July 2023) as the Pawar family tussle between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar plays out by proxy in these seats.
However, the shadow of the Maratha quota agitation looms large over the constituencies of Beed, Jalna and Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) where the contests are expected to go down to the wire.
Quota activism
Like a twisted Shakespearean play, the tempest of the Maratha agitation, which aggravated caste tensions in Marathwada during much of last year, has found its ‘Caliban’ in the form of quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil. Mr. Jarange-Patil’s
agitation has resulted in a sharp Maratha versus Other Backward Classes (OBC) division in the Marathwada region.
According to observers, the activist’s pull among the Maratha community is set to determine the fates of both ruling Mahayuti and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates in these three seats.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has elded former State Minister Pankaja Munde in Beed, arguably the most intensely contested seat in this phase. She is pitted against the MVA’s Bajrang Sonawane of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). In a masterful move, the 83-year-old Sharad Pawar wooed Mr. Sonawane from Ajit Pawar’s
NCP faction over to his side.
While clan rivalries and family splits marked the third phase of polling, particularly Baramati, a paradox in the Beed Lok Sabha constituency is that estranged cousins have come together in the form of Ms. Munde and Dhananjay Munde, who is with the ruling Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction.
Like the Pawars in Baramati, the prestige of the in¢uential OBC Munde clan is at stake in Beed.
For Ms. Pankaja Munde, who has been given a ticket in lieu of her sister Pritam Munde — the sitting MP of Beed — it is a trial by re as the election will determine her political future.
The outcome will also determine whether Ms. Munde is the true legatee of her father, the late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, who, along with Pramod Mahajan, was instrumental in leading the saron expansion in Maharashtra by welding together the OBCs as a cohesive BJP vote-bank.
Ms. Munde has had a stormy relationship with Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis while her relations with the party top brass in Delhi have been notably frigid owing to impolitic statements made by her.
Finally given a ticket as Beed’s candidate, Ms. Munde faces an uphill task owing to the heightened social tensions in the form of the Maratha versus OBC division among voters.
The mortal combat between Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction is playing out most prominently in the neighbouring Sambhajinagar seat, which is seeing a three-cornered contest with the incumbent MP, Imtiaz Jaleel of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM ranged against the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) candidate Sandipan Bhumre and former Aurangabad MP and Sena (UBT) candidate Chandrakant Khaire.
Mr. Jaleel, who had the support of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the 2019 general election, will now lack the Ambedkarite votes. He will also face a division in his core Muslim vote-bank given that a section of minority voters have moved towards Uddhav Thackeray, which is expected to benet Mr. Khaire.
However, owing to the dizzying political alignments in the State, Mr. Khaire will now be bereft of the BJP’s Hindu votes. Mr. Bhumre, on his part, faces the wrath of the Shiv Sena cadre which has not taken kindly to Mr. Shinde’s revolt against Mr. Thackeray.
In western Maharashtra, the Pune seat is set for a fascinating contest: the BJP (Mahayuti) has elded former city Mayor Murlidhar Mohol against the Congress’ Ravindra Dhangekar, an MLA who was given the parliamentary ticket after his resounding win in the Kasba by-election last year.
The Pune seat, long a bastion of the Congress since 1951, has slipped out of the party’s hands with the drift into political oblivion of Congressman Suresh Kalmadi. The BJP has reigned supreme here since the 2014 general election, consolidating its hold over Pune with a clean sweep in subsequent Assembly and civic body elections.
Besides Pune, two other seats in Pune district — Shirur and Maval — promise to be humdingers: In Shirur, Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit are locked in a bitter war by proxy as Pawar senior’s candidate, NCP (SP) leader Dr. Amol Kolhe is pitted against the former MP of Shirur, businessman Shivajirao-Adhalrao Patil, who is Ajit Pawar and the Mahayuti’s candidate.
In 2019, Dr. Kolhehad emerged as a ‘giant killer’ in Shirur by trouncing Mr. Adhalrao-Patil, who was then with the undivided Shiv Sena.