The caste fault lines and agrarian distress, which led many cotton and soybean farmers to choose the path of suicide, are the two major issues in Vidarbha, Marathwada. For representation purpose.
DH file photo
The vast Vidarbha and Marathwada regions together elect 108 of the 288 members of the legislative assembly of Maharashtra. Both ruling Maha Yuti and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi are focussing on the two battleground regions, which are known as the gateway to the seat of power in Mumbai.
The caste fault lines and agrarian distress, which led many cotton and soybean farmers to choose the path of suicide, are the two major issues in the two regions.
For more than a year, Marathwada has emerged as the hotbed of the caste conflict between the Marathas and the Other Backward Classes. It did hit the BJP-led alliance, which includes the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP during the Lok Sabha elections. The Shivba Sanghatana founder Manoj Jarange-Patil has been scaling up the demands for reservation for the Marathas, making it difficult for the Maha Yuti government, particularly Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP.
The state government has opened two routes for reservation for the Marathas – firstly, as Maratha-Kunbi and Kunbi-Maratha under the quota for the OBCs, and secondly, paving the way for 10% quota through the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024. However, Jarange-Patil is insisting on the implementation of the draft notification for reservation for ‘sage-soyare’, a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree’, which widens the scope of the quota. He is also demanding the withdrawal of cases against the agitators.
The BJP could not win a single Lok Sabha seat in Marathwada although the Shiv Sena won one. The MVA won seven LS seats.
“Jarange-Patil initially decided to field candidates but backed out later. He has taken the position back to the Lok Sabha polls when the Marathas may vent their ire against the government. Besides, Marathwada has a sizeable population of Muslims and Dalits, who may support the MVA, just as they did in the Lok Sabha polls,” said political analyst Nisar Ahmed Khan.
The BJP has worked a lot in the last three months to consolidate its traditional vote-bank of MADHAV – Mali, Dhangar, and Vanjari communities, which account for the largest section of the OBCs.
In Vidarbha, it’s mainly a Congress vs BJP fight in more than 50% of the assembly constituencies, and the political bigwigs of both sides, including chief ministerial aspirants, are in the fray.
Vidarbha’s two dominant communities, Kunbi and Teli, largely side with the Congress and the BJP respectively. “While Congress is banking on its time-tested formula of DMK (wooing Dalits, Muslims, and Kunbis), the BJP has consolidated the OBCs, micro OBCs and Banjara community,” said a senior Vidarbha leader.
“The Maha Yuti could not do well in the LS polls. The political situation, however, changed after the LS polls. The MVA partners took a lot of time to conclude the seat-sharing negotiation in the region,” said independent political observer Varun Singh.