BJP to push hardline Hindutva agenda ahead of Maharashtra polls
With about two months to go before polls, BJP leaders have also been vocal about conspiracies like “land jihad”, “love jihad”, and waqf land-related cases
Mumbai: After a poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has seemingly adopted a hardline Hindutva agenda ahead of the assembly elections.
From August 4, “Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morchas” led by the Sakal Hindu Samaj, a BJP-supported umbrella body of Hindutva organisations, will be back in the state. First held in late 2022, these rallies involve members marching through cities with saffron flags and headwear, followed by speeches against the Muslim community. Hindu right-wing organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Sanatan Sanstha organised about two dozen such marches in various parts of the state last year.
With about two months to go before the assembly polls in October, BJP leaders have also been vocal about conspiracies like “land jihad”, “love jihad”, and waqf land-related cases. The party leadership believes this will help polarise the pro-Hindutva vote bank ahead of the polls.
According to party insiders, re-introducing Jan Aakrosh Morchas across the state was the directive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent. The first such morcha will be organised at Karmala in Solapur on August 4, followed by another in Amravati on August 14.
“After a break, owing to some internal issues, we are starting [the morchas] again from next week,” said BJP MLA Nitesh Rane who, along with Gopichand Padalkar, has been designated by the party to coordinate with the morchas on behalf of the party. “The morchas are not led by any leader, organisation or party; it is a gathering of Hindus who feel the need to fight together for the religion. Wherever the incidents of love jihad and land jihad take place, or the waqf land-related cases happen, we organise such marches with the help of local bodies representing Hindus. We never aim for any gains out of it, but surely expect that Hindus vote for the parties that safeguard their interest.”
Rane and fellow BJP leader Kirit Somaiya have been vocal about alleged “love jihad” cases and visited Uran to meet the relatives of Yashashri Shinde, a 20-year-old woman who was murdered last week allegedly by her boyfriend, Daud Shaikh. The Navi Mumbai police, however, said “there is no basis to term this case as love jihad”.
BJP leaders had also been vocal about encroachments at Vishalgad Fort in Kolhapur. After right-wing organisations protested against the encroachments for months, the Kolhapur district administration started demolishing them on July 15. A mob also attacked Muslims’ homes, shops, vehicles and a mosque near the fort. The Bombay high court slammed the state government for carrying out the demolitions during the monsoon.
“We were asking for action against illegal structures regardless of the religion of the people living in those houses,” said Rane. “It is not that we are targeting Muslims on love jihad, but if you see, most of the cases of violence in the ‘love affairs’ are by Muslims. After our morchas, there is awareness among Hindus over deals of land and relations.”
During the BJP’s state convention in Pune last month, union home minister Amit Shah called Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray the “leader of the Aurangzeb fan club”. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently addressed a meeting of Hindu leaders at Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, an RSS-aligned institute in Uttran.
Soon after the Lok Sabha election results, the BJP targeted the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Thackeray, saying that the Muslim vote share in the state went to the party. “It was a systematic attempt by the party to create a perception,” said a BJP leader. “The idea was to deviate Hindu and Marathi voters from the Thackeray-led party in the upcoming assembly elections. It works to a certain extent, as wherever Muslim voters are seen to be polarised, Hindus come out in big numbers. This happened in the surrounding areas of Malegaon Central, where Muslims voted for the opposition.”
Muslim voters in Byculla, Mumbadevi, Anushakti Nagar, and Malad West in Mumbai; Bhiwandi West in Thane; and Malegaon Central in Nashik district voted for the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT)-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) alliance in the Lok Sabha elections. As much as 98% of votes in the Malegaon Central assembly constituency went to Congress candidate Shobha Bachhav, who won with a narrow margin.
The BJP leadership was, however, divided over playing up the issue after the Lok Sabha results, which indicated that Muslims, alongside Dalits, voted against the ruling parties. According to a party leader who was with the Congress earlier, a section of the leaders was against targeting Muslims like earlier.
“Targeting Muslims adversely impacts us more than helping us polarise Hindus. It was seen in the Lok Sabha polls. By changing the policy, fence-sitting Muslims can at least get attracted to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP or the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, if not directly to the BJP. It is not clear if the party has accepted the formula, but the RSS is in favour of pressing for the Hindutva agenda,” the leader said.
Hemant Desai, a Mumbai-based political analyst, said the BJP has been “trying every possible way” to garner voter support in the backdrop of its performance in the Lok Sabha polls. “I, however, doubt if the Hindus in Maharashtra polarise on such a divisive agenda. It was evident in the Lok Sabha polls, as the party performed poorly in Pune, Ahmednagar and other parts of western Maharashtra, where BJP could not gain much.”