Mahayuti makes major strides in Marathwada

The consolidation of non-Maratha votes, shift in the Maratha votes and the Ladki Bahin scheme reportedly worked their magic for the Mahayuti

MUMBAI: After losing seven of eight Marathwada seats in the Lok Sabha election six months ago, the ruling Mahayuti turned around its fortunes in the region by bagging 41 of 46 seats – the win, reportedly, has surprised even leaders of the ruling coalition.

Mahayuti makes major strides in Marathwada

BJP has won 19 of 20 seats, Shiv Sena 13 of 16 seats and NCP 8 of 9 seats they contested. One seat was contested by Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, which the party won.

The consolidation of non-Maratha votes, shift in the Maratha votes and the Ladki Bahin scheme reportedly worked their magic for the Mahayuti. Marathas who had voted against the coalition in Lok Sabha stood by them this time – this was the result of quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s equity being dented after his several flip-flops on contesting the election.

The region witnessed several close fights. In Bhokar Ashok Chavan’s daughter Sreejaya was in the fray against Congress’s Tirupati Kundhekar, in Latur city former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s MLA son Amit Deshmukh was pitted against former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Chakurkar’s daughter-in-law Archana Chakurkar, former union minister. Apart from them, former union minister Raosaheb Danve’s MLA son Santosh and daughter Sanjana Jadhav were in the fray from two different constituencies against Chandrakant Danve of NCP (SP) and Harshvadan Jadhav, an independent, respectively. Harshvardan is Sanjana’s estranged husband. In Beed, MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar (NCP-SP) was pitted against his cousin Yogesh Kshirsagar (NCP), while in Ashti BJP’s Suresh Dhas faced NCP’s Balasaheb Asbe. AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel faced BJP’s Atul Save in Aurangabad East.

Barring Latur City and Beed, the ruling alliance won all the seats.

Following Jarange-Patil’s stir and his anti-government stand, combined with the reaction from the OBC communities, had cost the Mahayuti dear in the recent past. The Maratha-OBC tussle led to the defeat of key BJP leaders such as Pankaja Munde, Raosaheb Danve and Pratap Chikhalikar.

This time, BJP and its allies pulled out all stops to regain lost ground by initiating a systematic galvanisation of the OBC vote bank – OBC outfits were propelled into a stir in response to the Maratha agitation. The outreach to voters with the help of various government schemes was increased with thrust on the region. BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also reportedly helped the party to stir up Hindutva sentiments here in response to the polarisation of Muslim votes in Lok Sabha.

“There are pockets with RSS influence in many Marathwada districts including Latur, Osmanabad and Nanded. Religious gurus from various parts of the state and their outfits were involved in the drive undertaken to polarise Hindu voters,” a BJP leader told HT.

Jarange-Patil, who held multiple indefinite hunger strikes since September 2023 to push for Maratha reservation from the OBC quota, had extensively toured the region during the Lok Sabha polls. He would openly tell community members to defeat the ruling alliance candidates. This time, he announced fielding his own candidates, only to back off hours before the last day of the withdrawal of nominations. He did not even hold the campaign meetings like held during Lok Sabha.

“The Jarange-Patil factor did not work in this election because of his change in political stand. He backtracked on his resolve to contest the assembly elections at the last moment when dozens of community members has filed their nominations. This diminished his credibility resulting in Maratha voters going back to Mahayuti. On the other hand, the ruling alliance polarised OBCs and other backward classes in its favour helping it to win most of the seats,” said Nanded-based political analyst Santosh Kulkarni.

The Mahayuti has however lost the Nanded Lok Sabha seat to Congress in the bypoll simultaneously held with the assembly polls. Congress’s Ravindra Chavan defeated BJP’s Santuk Hambarde by 1457 votes. “The sympathy played a part in Chavan’s favour as the bypoll was necessitated owing to the death of his father Vasantrao Chavan,” said Kulkarni.