As the rest of the state soaks in the festivities during the 10-day Ganeshotsav, an all-too-familiar political problem is back to trouble the BJP in Maharashtra.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil is hoping to seize the centre stage in Maharashtra politics again starting with a protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan on Friday, demanding that the Mahayuti government fulfil its promise for reservation for the Marathas. Jarange Patil, who had marched on Mumbai last year too and had been convinced by the previous Eknath Shinde government to return following a “concession”, has plans for an indefinite fast. However, the government has allowed him to protest at Azad Maidan only for a day, subject to certain conditions, which could result in a showdown. With this coinciding with the festival season, a stretched Mumbai Police has deployed 1,500 personnel at Azad Maidan for Friday’s protest..
Jarange Patil, who has revived his quota agitation after lying low for almost nine months following the BJP-led Mahayuti’s decisive win in last year’s Assembly elections, ratcheted up his rhetoric Thursday, accusing the BJP-led government of trying to “fool the Maratha community” and claiming he will not look back, even if he has to “face bullets”.
The BJP’s concerns have been compounded by its ally Shiv Sena’s decision to stay out of this fight. Last year, following the reversals in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the BJP had banked on Sena leader and then Chief Minister Shinde, who is a Maratha, to counter Jarange Patil and bring back the Maratha votes it was seen as having lost during the parliamentary polls. Even when Jarange-Patil faced flak earlier this week for using derogatory language about Devendra Fadnavis and his mother — he later retracted the statement — neither Shinde nor the Sena came to the CM’s defence. Sena insiders said party MLAs, MPs, and other leaders had been directed not to speak against Jarange Patil as the party does not want to antagonise him.
Senior Sena minister Dada Bhuse has been on record saying the government should hold dialogue with the activist. “Ideally, in such a situation, a collective coalition should fight Jarange Patil. But in-house conflicts within the Mahayuti are apparent. Every individual is trying to use the opportunity to push their politics. It is no secret that Shinde wants to assert his Maratha leadership through the Jarange Patil agitation. He still hopes that if a Maratha CM becomes a necessary option, he will be at the forefront,” said a senior BJP functionary.
Ahead of the civic body polls, the government will also want to avoid a re-run of September 1, 2023, when a police lathicharge in Jarange Patil’s village of Antarwali Sarathi in Jalna district had turned the activist into the face of the quota agitation and provided it with momentum. At the time, Fadnavis was the Deputy CM and held the Home Portfolio and had to issue a public apology.
In the Lok Sabha elections, Jarange Patil’s call to Marathas to boycott the BJP and Fadnavis worked, becoming one of the factors that led to the ruling party falling to nine seats out of the 28 it contested. However, ahead of the Assembly elections, the BJP concentrated on consolidating the OBCs who are opposed to giving Marathas reservation benefits allocated for Kunbis (one of the largest OBC groups). The strategy paid rich dividends in the polls as the party stormed back to power, winning 132 of the 148 seats it contested. What also appeared to work against Jarange Patil was his last-minute flip-flop on fielding candidates against the ruling alliance.
This time too, the OBCs are gearing up to resist Jarange Patil’s quota push. Maharashtra OBC Mahasangh president Babanrao Taywade has convened a meeting in Nagpur on Friday to draw a long-term strategy.
According to the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, OBCs comprise around 38% of the overall state population. “OBCs are a major force and if anybody tries to tamper with it, we will counter it through street agitations. We are not against Maratha reservation, but it should be up and above the OBC quota,” Taywade said.
What Opposition is saying
Hoping to make gains from the Jarange Patil protest, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) have backed him. “I pray for the success of the Jarange Patil agitation so that Marathas get the reservation. At the same time, the government should ensure that the OBC quota remains intact,” said Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat.
Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Jadhav also backed Jarange Patil, saying, “Why has the Fadnavis government failed to fulfil the Maratha reservation demand? Had they resolved the quota issue, such a situation would not have arrived.”
A senior OBC leader in the NCP pointed to the differences the agitation had caused in the Mahayuti. “Shinde has not reconciled to the fact that he is now the Deputy CM. They (Sena) still believe that the Maratha plank and agitation will help Shinde regain the CM chair.”
A section within the Maratha Kranti Morcha that initially led the pro-reservation demonstrations from 2016 to 2018 believes that Jarange Patil’s demand for quota from the OBC share will backfire. “Maratha reservation is very complex as it is not socially backward. It has always been a forward caste. At the same time, there are sizeable segments who are very poor and illiterate. If we have to address their concern, we have to look for practical solutions that will fit within the Constitutional framework and withstand legal challenges,” said a senior Morcha coordinator.
Defending the CM, BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said he had been sincere about resolving the issue even during his first term. “During his first term as CM, the Maratha reservation resolution was adopted in the state legislature. The Maratha got reservation through the SEBC Act, but the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray did not contest when the Supreme Court scrapped it in May 2021. When the Sena-BJP government returned to power, reservation was restored to 10%. Fadnavis is doing everything possible to maximise all welfare benefits to Marathas,” he said.