Bajrang Sonawane: Caste Lines Are Significant For The Maratha Leader In Beed

Bajrang Sonawane, an ally of Ajit Pawar after splitting with the NCP last year, has joined the Sharad Pawar faction in March. His return to the NCP (Sharad Pawar) has accelerated party’s prospects in Beed Constituency. In the upcoming polls, he will be pitted against BJP candidate Pankaja Munde.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Bajrang Sonawane contested unsuccessfully against BJP MP Pritam Munde and lost by a margin of 168368 votes. Sonawane, hailing from Beed district, is a popular political figure in the region. Despite being a Maratha leader, he earned acceptance among other communities as well. Besides, Sonawane is a chairman of the Yesdeshwar Cooperative Sugar Mill and a member of the District Council of Beed.

The Beed district has been one of the centers of violence in the wake of the Maratha agitation last year. The residences of opposition NCP MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar and ruling NCP Prakash Solankhe were attacked at that time.

Beed Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly segments, and among them, five seats: Parli, Ashti, and Majalgaon are with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, while Georai and Kaik are with the BJP. Beed is the only assembly segment with Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

Maharashtra’s Beed Constituency has been with the Munde family since 2009. Pritam Munde has won the seat in the past two times, i.e., the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Over three-and-a-half lakh Vanjari (OBC) votes in the constituency are claimed to be the loyal vote bank of Mundes, The Indian Express observes. The NCP won the seat last time in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

Drought-hit region Beed suffer on the developmental front. During one of the campaigns in the constituency, Bajrang Sonawane stated that he is contesting the polls by presenting developmental issues and will not be on caste lines. He added that the BJP had failed to initiate development in the Beed constituency, in spite of being in power for the past decade.

However, the caste lines are going to play a huge role in the Beed constituency in the upcoming polls. The fight between Bajrang Sonawane and Pankaja Munde can be read as a contest between a Maratha and a Vanjari candidate. Pankaja Munde, senior BJP leader and sister of sitting MP Pritam Munde, belongs to a family of influential leaders representing the Vanjari community.