Why Marathas are deserting Cong, NCP and seeking shelter in BJP, Shiv Sena

A strange paradox, this. The valorous Marathas, led by Sadashivrao-bhau Peshwa, a Brahmin, had fled the battlefield after their defeat in the third battle of Panipat in 1761 at the hands of Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdali.

Now a different kind of flight is being observed. The leaders of the Marathas are seeking shelter in the secure pastures of the BJP and Shiv Sena, deserting the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with the Brahmin Devendra Fadnavis at the helm in Maharashtra. The Marathas, who have been dominant in the politics of Maharashtra since the state was born in 1960, are in a sweat and want to secure their gravy train — whether it is a cooperative sugar factory, milk federation, or educational institution — because they anticipate that the BJP  will stay for some time at both the Centre and in the state.

The exodus is so overwhelming that three descendants of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the most revered Maratha hero, are now all in the BJP.

Sambhaji Raje of Kolhapur was made Rajya Sabha member some years ago by the BJP to make a foray into the community, which constitutes some 32 per cent of the 120 million people of the state. Shivendra Raje of Satara, who was an NCP MLA, resigned and joined the BJP while his cousin Udayanraje Bhosale followed him a fortnight ago by resigning as Lok Sabha MP from Satara.

The much-talked-about quota for the Marathas in jobs and education is seen as a “surgical strike” by Fadnavis on his detractors. It has brought a tectonic shift in the politics of Maharashtra, where the Marathas so far have remained beholden to Sharad Pawar’s NCP to a large extent and to some extent the Congress.

Much has changed in the politics of Maharashtra since May 2014, with Narendra Modi becoming prime minister after securing a majority for the BJP. Virtually overnight the BJP became the “boss” in Maharashtra as the party, along with its oldest ideological ally, the Shiv Sena, made mincemeat of the Congress and the NCP, winning 42 of the 48 seats in the state. 

Some three decades ago, the BJP, like its previous avatar, the Jana Sangh, was known as a “Brahmin Bania” party but took serious steps towards social engineering under the late Vasantrao Bhagwat, who made Gopinath Munde, a Vanjara, the OBC (Other Backward Classes) face of the party in Maharashtra. Pramod Mahajan, a Brahmin, was moved to central politics because it was inconceivable then as to how a leader from a politically insignificant community could lead the state, dominated by the Marathas.

Modi and Shah have changed all that. After Fadnavis completed a term, they are projecting the 49-year-old leader as the chief minister candidate of the party, signifying the confidence the party has in him and the strategy being adopted.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, a Congressman, was the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. But he quit the party and is now a BJP minister after his son Sujay became an MP of the ruling party. He belongs to a powerful Maratha family that started the first cooperative sugar factory in India in 1951.

Talk of former CM Narayan Rane merging his newly found Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha is also in the air.

The Enforcement Directorate’s sudden move against Sharad Pawar, who will be 80 this December, appears to have caught the state BJP unawares because the move has given the Maratha strongman a handle to revive the opposition. The shrewd leader, fighting with his back to the wall, has deftly played the Maratha card, declaring that Shivaji Maharaj’s Maharashtra has never bowed before the Delhi throne. 

Fadnavis’ remark that the move has nothing to do with the state government reflects the unease in the BJP over this.

Udayanraje’s position that he would withdraw from the contest if Pawar decided to be the nominee for the Satara bypoll signals the stature of the NCP chief.