Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: Congress and BJP scramble to consolidate MADHAV, DMK vote banks

Congress is banking on its traditional DMK vote bank, an acronym for Dalit-Muslim-Kunbi, which yielded results in the general elections. On the other hand, the BJP has revisited its time-tested MADHAV-formula, which stands for Mali-Dhangar-Vanjari, the biggest chunk in the OBC group.

Mumbai: Many seats in poll-bound Maharashtra are witnessing parallel consolidation of DMK and MADHAV.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP saw a massive backlash because of the vexed Maratha reservation issue and resistance from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) too.

Congress is banking on its traditional DMK vote bank, an acronym for Dalit-Muslim-Kunbi, which yielded results in the general elections. Kubis are a sub-caste of Marathas and covered under OBCs.

On the other hand, the BJP has revisited its time-tested MADHAV-formula, which stands for Mali-Dhangar-Vanjari, the biggest chunk in the OBC group.

In the wake of the Marathas vs OBCs issue, various caste-combinations are now at play in the five geographical regions — Mumbai-Konkan, Western Maharashtra, North Maharashtra-Khandesh, Marathwada and Vidarbha.

Even Maratha reservation campaigner Manoj Jarange-Patil, the founder of Shivba Sanghatana, has appealed for Marathas-Dalits-Adivasis-Muslims to come together to realise the dream of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar besides reiterating that he is not against the OBCs in any way.

The stiff opposition to Jarange-Patil comes from state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal of NCP, who hails from the Mali community. He has backed OBC Sangharsh Sena's Prof Laxman Hake, an activist who conducts counter-protests against Jarange-Patil.

“It is a known fact that in India, caste factor plays an important role in state elections among other factors. However, in this election in Maharashtra, the caste issue is the numero uno factor. A lot of seats would be decided just on the basis of caste combinations,” political observers said.

Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, five are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and four for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

As far as the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is concerned, 29 are reserved for SCs and 25 for STs.

If one looks at the Lok Sabha election results, Marathas form the lion’s share.

Maharashtra large chunk of 26 are from the Maratha community.

The other big chunk of nine comprises OBCs (9), followed by SCs (6) and STs (4) and three from other castes.

Three others hail from other communities.

Late Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who was from the Vanjari community from Marathwada and Eknath Khadse, a Leva-Patil from North Maharashtra, played a major role in consolidating MADHAV. However, many factors like denial of tickets in 2019 to Khadse, who is now with Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who is from Teli community, did not go down well. Bawankule, a Vidarbha veteran is now the state BJP President. Munde’s daughter and late Pramod Mahajan’s niece Pankaja Munde, who was sidelined in state politics for five years, was given an MLC berth.

The BJP altered the course and now Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the party’s pointsperson launched several initiatives including various schemes and hostels.

Rashtriya Samaj Paksha founder-President Mahadev Jankar, a Dhangar leader was given the ticket from Parbhani from the quota of NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, however, he lost. Jankar, who is close to the Munde family has come out of the Maha Yuti and will test strength by fielding candidates. However, to counter it, the BJP nominated MLC Gopichand Padalkar, an MLC, to contest the Jat seat in Sangli. BJP MLC Prof Ram Shinde too is contesting polls from Karjat-Jamkhed that he lost to Rohit Pawar, a Maratha and grandnephew of Sharad Pawar.

One of the big decisions that the government took was to rename Ahmednagar district as Ahilyanagar after Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar, the legendary Holkar-queen of the Maratha-Malwa kingdom. Ahilyabai Holkar was born Chaundi in Ahmednagar district to a Dhangar family and was married to Khanderao Holkar of the Holkar dynasty of Indore.