The spectre of the Maratha quota agitation hovers over a number of electoral battles as 11 key seats in Maharashtra go to polls in part 4 of the overall election on May 13.
The seats which might be situated within the State’s arid, economically backward Marathwada area, the affluent western half and north Maharashtra, can even really feel the impact of the splits within the Shiv Sena (June 2022) and the Nationalist Congress Party (July 2023) because the Pawar household tussle between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar performs out by proxy in these seats.
However, the shadow of the Maratha quota agitation looms giant over the constituencies of Beed, Jalna and Sambhajinagar (previously Aurangabad) the place the contests are anticipated to go all the way down to the wire.
Quota activism
Like a twisted Shakesperean play, the tempest of the Maratha agitation, which aggravated caste tensions in Marathwada throughout a lot of final yr, has discovered its ‘Caliban’ within the type of quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil. Mr. Jarange-Patil’s agitation has resulted in a pointy Maratha versus Other Backward Classes (OBC) division within the Marathwada area.
According to observers, the activist’s pull among the many Maratha neighborhood is ready to find out the fates of each ruling Mahayuti and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates in these three seats.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded former State Minister Pankaja Munde in Beed, arguably probably the most intensely contested seat on this part. She is pitted in opposition to the MVA’s Bajrang Sonawane of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). In a masterful transfer, the 83-year-old Sharad Pawar wooed Mr. Sonawane from Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction over to his facet.
Munde clan
While clan rivalries and household splits marked the third part of polling, notably Baramati, a paradox within the Beed Lok Sabha constituency is that estranged cousins have come collectively within the type of Ms. Munde and Dhananjay Munde, who’s with the ruling Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction.
Like the Pawars in Baramati, the status of the influential 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’s a trial by fireplace because the election will decide her political future.
The final result can even decide whether or not Ms. Munde is the true legatee of her father, the late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, who, together with Pramod Mahajan, was instrumental in main the saffron enlargement in Maharashtra by welding collectively the OBCs as a cohesive BJP vote-bank.
Ms. Munde has had a stormy relationship with Deputy Chief Minister and BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis whereas her relations with the celebration prime 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 process owing to the heightened social tensions within the type of the Maratha versus OBC division amongst voters. The OBC versus Maratha feud that has lengthy been festering in Marathwada — a area with a paucity of trade, rising unemployment and within the throes of a perennial agrarian disaster — has been given a contemporary lease of life with Mr. Jarange-Patil’s agitation.
In Sambhajinagar
The mortal fight between Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction is taking part in out most prominently within the neighbouring Sambhajinagar seat, which is seeing a three-cornered contest with the incumbent MP, Imtiaz Jaleel of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM ranged in opposition to the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) candidate Sandipan Bhumre and former Aurangabad MP and Sena (UBT) candidate Chandrakant Khaire.
Mr. Jaleel, who had the help of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) within the 2019 basic election, will now lack the Ambedkarite votes. He can even face a division in his core Muslim vote-bank given {that a} part of minority voters have moved in the direction of Uddhav Thackeray, which is predicted to learn Mr. Khaire.
However, owing to the dizzying political alignments within the State, Mr. Khaire will now be bereft of the BJP’s Hindu votes. Mr. Bhumre, on his half, faces the wrath of the Shiv Sena cadre which has not taken kindly to Mr. Shinde’s revolt in opposition to Mr. Thackeray.
Tough struggle in western Maharashtra
In western Maharashtra, the Pune seat is ready for a captivating contest: the BJP (Mahayuti) has fielded former metropolis Mayor Murlidhar Mohol in opposition to the Congress’ Ravindra Dhangekar, an MLA who was give the parliamentary ticket after his resounding win within the Kasba by-election final yr.
The Pune seat, lengthy a bastion of the Congress since 1951, has slipped out of the celebration’s palms with the drift into political oblivion of Congressman Suresh Kalmadi. The BJP has reigned supreme right here because the 2014 basic election, consolidating their maintain over Pune with a clear sweep in subsequent Assembly and civic physique elections.
Despite a minor Congress renaissance final yr within the type of Mr. Dhangekar’s victory, raging the celebration’s decrepit organisational construction versus the BJP’s sturdy ballot organisation may hamstring the MVA on this contest.
Besides Pune, two different seats in Pune district — Shirur and Maval — promise to be humdingers: In Shirur, Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit are locked in a bitter warfare by proxy as Pawar senior’s candidate, NCP (SP) chief Dr. Amol Kolhe is pitted in opposition to the previous MP of Shirur, businessman Shivajirao-Adhalrao Patil, who’s Ajit Pawar and the Mahayuti’s candidate.
As a political novice in 2019, Dr. Kolhe — an actor who achieved native movie star together with his portrayals of seventeenth century Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji and his son, Sambhaji, in two wildly standard Marathi serials — had emerged as a ‘giant killer’ in Shirur by trouncing Mr. Adhalrao-Patil, who was then with the undivided Shiv Sena.
At the time, it was Ajit Pawar who had run Dr. Kolhe’s marketing campaign. After the NCP break up, as Dr. Kolhe stayed on with Sharad Pawar, Mr. Ajit Pawar had brazenly vowed to defeat the actor-politician, imputing he was a political light-weight who had allegedly wished to resign from his parliamentary put up as his appearing schedules had been interfering together with his work as MP.
Since then, Shirur has became a ‘mini Baramati’ because the ‘reel Shivaji’ (Dr. Kolhe) faces the ‘real’ Shivaji — Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil.
Source: www.thehindu.com
