Mumbai They are a block of 400-odd castes and tribes who form the backbone of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) support base in Maharashtra for almost four decades now. But as the October 21 assembly election approaches, the Other Backward Classes (OBC) groups in the state are unhappy about the quantum of reservation allocated to them and the quotas granted to the Maratha community though experts say they are likely to back the saffron party once again.
The immediate source of discontent– especially the bigger communities such as Mali, Dhangar and Wanjari that make up xxxx% of the total OBCs – is the government’s decision to grant 16% reservation to the Marathas in 2018. The Bombay high court this year slashed the quota to 12% in education and 13% in jobs but upheld the government’s legislation.
The Maratha quota was the culmination of three years of protests and 58 rallies. The stir began in August 2016 when the community took out huge silent marches that brought major cities in the state, including state capital Mumbai, to a standstill. Quotas for the Marathas had been announced by the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government as well but was blocked by the judiciary.
In Maharashtra’s politics, Marathas, who form roughly one third of the population, and OBCs, who are little less than half of the population, are two poles of the state’s polity. Marathas have been traditional supporters of the Congress as well as the NCP, while OBCs have drifted towards the BJP.
BJP leader Vasantrao Bhagwat strategically brought OBCs into the BJP-fold under the so-called ‘Madhav’ formula (which stood for ‘Ma’li, ‘Dha’ngar and ‘V’anjari castes) in 1980 by promoting leaders from these castes. Bhagwat’s protégés Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde took the ‘Madhav’ formula legacy forward. In fact, Munde, an OBC (Vanjari) leader became one of the BJP’s most prominent faces in Maharashtra.
Now, the Devendra Fadnavis government is hoping for a chunk of support from the Marathas after having successfully navigated the quota issue. “The BJP since the beginning was known as an OBC party. It has, of late, successfully attracted Maratha community to its fold by giving it the reservation which was deemed as most difficult task,” said Prakash Pawar, a political analyst from Western Maharashtra.
POLITICAL STRATEGY
In Maharashtra, about 346 castes covered under the OBC category get 19% reservation, while 52 tribes and castes covered under the Vimukta Jati and Nomedic Tribes (VJNT) get another 11% reservation. Special Backward Classes have 2% reservation as per the rescheduled list of reservation in May 1994.
But OBCs say they are more in number, as per WHAT, and therefore deserve a higher quantum of reservation. A sub-caste of the Marathas, called Kunbis, are also classified as OBC.
When the BJP government came out in favour of the Maratha quota, many OBC groups were quick to criticise the decision. One OBC group, NAME, even challenged the decision in the Bombay high court. On the whole, protests have been muted though OBC leaders say there is simmering discontent about the government not prioritising the demand of its main vote base for increased quotas – such as a decades-old demand by the Dhangars to be treated as a scheduled tribe (ST).
“The OBCs get 27% of the reservation against a population of 52%, while Marathas got 13 reservation against their population of 16-18%, excluding Kunbis who have already been reserved as OBCs. Similarly, the state government has given more facilities to Marathas in scholarships, hostels and welfare schemes than us,” said Chandrakant Bavkar, president of the OBC Sangharsha Samanvay Samiti, an umbrella body of OBC communities in the state.
The Opposition is attempting to exploit this discontent and wean away a section of the OBC vote away from the BJP. The NCP. which counts the Marathas as a key vote base, has started promoting young OBC faces. NCP chief Sharad Pawar inducted popular Marathi actor Amol Kolhe and fielded him from the Shirur Lok Sabha constituency in Pune district in the 2019 general elections. Kolhe won by defeating veteran Shiv Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil.
Ahead of the assembly election, the NCP launched a statewide tour, Shiv Swarajya Yatra, led by Kolhe. Pawar also promoted Dhananjay Munde, nephew of Gopinath Munde, by making him the Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council. In the campaign, both Kolhe and Munde have been at the forefront.
The Congress also appointed Vijay Wadettiwar, an OBC leader from Vidarbha, as its leader in the legislative assembly.
“The Congress constitution does not allow caste or community-based politics. We have support of all the castes, religions and it will be continued in this election too,” said Sharad Ranpise, Congress leader.
The BJP is confident that these efforts will come to naught. The party points out that the state government was careful in striking a balance between the communities and took care to ensure that the Maratha quota was implemented without squeezing existing reservation for other communities. After the Maratha reservation, the government also extended all applicable ST schemes to the Dhangars by making a provision of Rs 1,000 crore.
“We ensured the Maratha reservation did not touch the OBC quota. Special schemes with significant allocation of Rs 386 crore for OBCs has safeguarded the welfare of the communities,”said BJP MP FROM WHERE and the party’s OBC face, Vikas Mahatme.
The party has also pitched its campaign on the governance record of Fadnavis and issues such as nationalism and the abrogation of Article 370 that resonate with the electorate and fetched the party rich dividends in the Lok Sabha elections. “Like the Lok Sabha elections, the state polls will be fought on nationalist issues. So despite the discontent among the OBCs over reservation, there may hardly be any reflection in the voting pattern,” said Bavkar.
DIVISIONS EXIST
The OBCs dominate the candidate list of most mainstream parties but community leaders complain that only a few big castes secure a bulk of the representation and benefits.
“We have over 350 castes with OBC and VJNT reservation, but only a handful of them such as Wanjari, Mali and Dhangar get the major pie of the benefits. Other smaller castes hardly get any representation in education, jobs and social schemes because they are unorganised and unaware about their rights. The Maratha reservation given recently further suppressed our rights in jobs and education,” said Shabbir Ansari, founder president of the All India Muslim OBC Organisation.
“It is true that a handful of powerful castes within the OBCs take away most part of the reservation, but it is because of the lack of awareness and unity among most backward castes within the category,” said Mahatme.
First Published:
Oct 11, 2019 23:30 IST
Source: HindustanTimes