The Jarange Factor And Maratha Community Votes (image: facebook.com/manojjarangepatil96k)

In the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Marathawada region and Maratha community votes will be be crucial considering the decisive influence it played in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who announced his plans to field candidates in the assembly polls, made volte-face on November 4 declaring his withdrawal. “It is not possible to contest and win an election on the strength of one caste. We are new in politics. If we field a candidate and he loses, it will be a shame for the caste. Therefore, I request all the Maratha candidates to withdraw their nomination,” he said.

The Maratha activist’s decision came as a relief for the major alliance parties and well-wishers of the quota protest in general, but where will the Maratha votes go again attains significance. The Marathawada region comprises 46 assembly seats, and winning the seats is important for the two main alliance groups. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has been trounced from the eight seats in the region, one of the key factors in the Mahayuti alliance’s overall poor performance.

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Marathas, the dominant caste in Maharashtra, and their demand for reservation in education and jobs trace a decades-long battle. In 1981, under the leadership of the Mathadi Labour Union leader Annasaheb Patil, the State witnessed the first protests in demand for their reservation. The community, given the Kshatriya status due to the martial history, has been requesting the government to be classified with the Kunbis (sharecroppers or tillers), a sub-caste within the Maratha community.

The Kunbis already belongs to the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category and possess reservation rights. The Maratha-Kunbi grouping is said to constitute 31.5 percent of the state population, and Marathas alone comprise 12–16 percent of the total population. The protest resurfaced again last year and took intensity character when Jarange-Patil emerged as the face of the protests. With activist’s indefinite hunger strikes, the revamped Maratha agitation saw violence, suicides, and resignations of legislators. In February, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed a bill allotting a 10% quota in education and government jobs for the Maratha community, but the activist snubbed it as “a betrayal to the Maratha community” and said that they will continue with the protest. In September, Patil held his sixth indefinite hunger strike, months ahead of Maharashtra polls, and called off after nine days, keeping in view of the sentiments of the Maratha community.

Patil and his supporters anti-BJP stance and attack on Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, viewed as positive by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), who were hoping to benefit from the Maratha vote bank. There are also speculations that Patil who were planning to form a rainbow coalition with Muslim and Dalit groups and with the support of individual groups withdrew from the polls at the last minute due to NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar’s word and are secretly associating with the latter’s group. At the same time, there are also observations that, compared to the general elections, the ‘Jarange factor’ in the electoral politics got weaned now, and factors might influence assembly polls will be different. In addition, there are also opinions that Patil’s U-turn in contesting election may not sit well with electorates, and reposing faith in him again.

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However, learning from Lok Sabha results and uncertainty over the accumulation of Maratha votes, the saffron party is working on the consolidation of OBC votes using their tried and tested old Ma-Dha-Va (Mali-Dhangar-Vanjari) caste strategy. The main parties have also ensured that they have fielded ample number of Maratha candidates to avoid any setbacks. Began as an agitational politics, Maratha agitation now took political character and all alliance partners are actively engaging with their cause to woo their vote bank. When the results will be announced on November 23, not only who will hold the key to the Maratha community vote bank, which is influential on nearly 150 assembly seats, will be revealed, but also the impact of the Patil factor in the Marathawada region.