BJP tries to consolidate its OBC vote base in Maharashtra amid Maratha agitation

“This is the guarantee of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Till the time there is BJP, there will be no change in the reservations given to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). It is Modi’s guarantee. Congress is spreading a false campaign that if BJP wins 400 seats, it will change the Constitution,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday (April 23) in Akola, Maharashtra, where he was campaigning for the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

OBCs vs Marathas

As the protests by members of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) continue against the demand by the powerful Maratha community for reservation status as OBCs, the ruling BJP fears that the protests could disrupt its voter base in the Lok Sabha elections.

The assurance given by home minister Amit Shah has come after members of the OBC community have threatened that they will only vote for candidates who are members of their own community or political parties that are supportive of the demands of the OBC community.

With the two dominant communities of Maharashtra at loggerheads with each other over the demand for reservations by the Maratha community, the BJP leadership is trying to deal with the situation in a delicate manner as it threatens to damage its electoral prospects in a state that sends 48 Lok Sabha representatives.

High stakes for BJP

The stakes are high for the BJP because during the 2019 general elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 41 out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra with a vote share of over 51 per cent. Out of the two NDA partners in 2019, the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP won 23 seats with a vote share of nearly 28 per cent, while the Shiv Sena won 18 seats with 23.5 per cent of the votes.

“We are not a political organisation, so we do not want to take political sides at the time of elections. We are a social organisation, and our main work is for the welfare of the OBC community in the state. All political parties come to us for support. We understand that there is an election going on in the country, and political parties want the support of the OBC community. We have members and MPs and MLAs in all the political parties of Maharashtra. We are only telling our people that they should vote only for OBC candidates and political parties that are supportive of the stand taken by the OBC community for reservations,” Ashish Taywade of Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh told The Federal.

Tussle for Nashik seat

The recent decision of Chhagan Bhujbal to not contest the Lok Sabha elections and instead support the NDA candidate from Nashik threatens to further complicate the voter base of the BJP. While Bhujbal is known for leading the protests against the demands of the Maratha community, his last-minute decision to not contest the Lok Sabha polls could annoy the OBC community against the NDA.

The problem started when Bhujbal decided that he would contest the Lok Sabha elections from Nashik as the NDA candidate against the representative of the INDIA alliance. However, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde was keen that Hemant Godse, a Brahmin who has represented the constituency continuously since 2014, must remain the candidate and the seat should continue to remain with the Shiv Sena.

The tussle between Bhujbal and Shinde continued for more than a month, but after the intervention of the BJP leadership, it was decided that the Shiv Sena candidate Hemant Godse would represent the NDA to seek a third consecutive term in the constituency.

“Chhagan Bhujbal is a very prominent OBC leader in Maharashtra, and he was at the forefront of leading the OBC community against the demands of the Maratha community. Bhujbal is a leading voice of the OBC community in the Maharashtra cabinet, and we are confident that even though he is not contesting the Lok Sabha elections, he will support the OBC community from the Nashik Lok Sabha seat. We are confident that Bhujbal will only support an OBC candidate and not any other candidate from the constituency,” added Taywade.

BJP’s strategy to get Maratha votes

“There are three types of political parties against us in Maharashtra. There is a fake Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, a fake NCP led by Sharad Pawar, and the reduced Congress party,” said Amit Shah during a public meeting in Nanded.

While the BJP leadership is trying to consolidate its OBC voter base, which is the largest community in Maharashtra and also the core voter of the BJP, the ruling party is hoping that chief minister Eknath Shinde, chief of Shiv Sena, and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), will be able to consolidate the position of the NDA among the Maratha voter base.

The BJP has focussed on cultivating Maratha leadership in the NDA in the last few years, and the decision to align with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar was a step in that direction - to divide the voter base of the Congress and Sharad Pawar in the state.

Senior leaders of the BJP believe that the trinity of Shinde, Ajit Pawar, and the BJP would be able to defeat the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Congress, Sharad Pawar, and Uddhav Thackeray and win a majority of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“The message from us is clear that people should vote for the candidate of the Maratha community alone. We do not want to take sides with any political party. We are supporting candidates from our community. We cannot tell people who to vote for. People have to make their own choice. Maratha leadership is present in all political parties,” Suresh Deodrepatil, president of Akhil Bharatiya Maratha Mahasabha in Aurangabad, told The Federal.