Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: The complex Maratha reservation issue and the Manoj Jarange-Patil factor has not clicked in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls just six months after it played havoc during the Lok Sabha polls.
The Jarange-factor was expected to damage the prospects of BJP-led Maha Yuti; however, the saffron party and its fountainhead RSS did the arithmetic right and helped out the candidates.
The Marathwada region has 48 Assembly seats and 8 Lok Sabha seats.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP could not win a single seat, but Shiv Sena won one seat with Sandipan Bhumare emerging victorious in Aurangabad. Even BJP stalwart and OBC leader Pankaja Munde, now an MLC, lost the family seat of Beed.
In 2019, undivided Shiv Sena won three seats, BJP three and Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM one.
In the outgoing Assembly, the BJP has 16 members, Shiv Sena 12, Congress 8, NCP 8, RSP 1, PWP 1.
If one looks at the 2024 Assembly polls, the BJP-led Maha Yuti won 41 seats while the Maha Vikas Aghadi just five.
For more than a year, Marathwada has emerged as the hotbed of the caste conflict between the Marathas and the Other Backward Classes - and the impact was felt by the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance.
Patil’s target was Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis because of last year’s lathi charge. However, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde managed to reach out to him but Patil, the founder of Shivba Sanghatana, kept on escalating the demands.
Patil conducts the Maratha reservation campaign from the Antarwali Sarathi village in the Ambad tehsil of Jalna district.
On the other hand, Wadigodri is the place near Patil’s village from where Laxman Hake leads the OBC resistance.
Over the last one year, the Shinde-Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government has opened two routes for Maratha reservation - as Maratha-Kunbi and Kunbi-Maratha under OBCs. The Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024, was passed in the state legislature, paving the way for 10 per cent reservation.
However, Patil is insisting on implementation of draft notification of ‘sage-soyare’, a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree', which widens the scope of the quota and withdrawal of cases against the agitators.
“Patil initially decided to field candidates, however, he backed out. This has sent out a very wrong message among his supporters and people at large,” political observers said.
“Patil has been misleading people with assurances which cannot happen,” said Hake as the results poured in.
In fact, BJP consolidated its tried and tested Madhav-formula, which stands for large OBC groups - Mali-Dhangar-Vanjari as against the DMK of the Congress, which stands for Dalit-Muslim-Kunbi. The RSS outreach did the turnaround.
One of the surprising results was from Ghanswangi, from where Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP)’s Rajesh Tope - who was the Health Minister during the Covid-19 pandemic - lost the elections to Hikmat Udhan of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
“The BJP and its election management team defied all odds to secure a Maha Yuti win,” sources said.
One of the big wins was from Parli, where Dhananjay Munde of Ajit Pawar-led NCP won by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes defeating NCP (SP)’s Rajesaheb Deshmukh.
Maharashtra Assembly poll 2024 results | Check constituency results here
Jharkhand Assembly poll 2024 results | Check constituency results here
Bypoll 2024 results | Check Karnataka results here
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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