NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) chief Chhagan Bhujbal. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief (Ajit Pawar faction) Chhagan Bhujbal mentioned that whereas the BJP and the Mahayuthi (National Democratic Alliance or NDA) will not discover Maharashtra a cakewalk as it had within the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would nonetheless have a bonus in forming the federal government on the Centre.
Speaking completely to The Hindu, Mr. Bhujbal mentioned whereas it was true that this time round, with the break up within the NCP and the Shiv Sena, and with six events ranged in opposition to one another in two alliances, it was troublesome to gauge what the people could also be pondering, a nationwide election would nonetheless gave Mr. Modi the benefit.
“While people are attending political meetings of this leader and that, they do come around to the view that this is an election to elect the Prime Minister of the country, who should be strong and who should be able to navigate what is going on internationally, be it Russia-Ukraine or West Asia. That gives Prime Minister Modi an undeniable advantage as the INDIA (Indian National Democratic, Inclusive Alliance) group is not united across the country,” Mr. Bhujbal mentioned.
“In Maharashtra, it is not as though the BJP has a cakewalk like it was in 2014 and 2019, but it is also not the case that the Opposition parties will be able to dominate. The BJP and the Mahayuthi (NDA) will have to work hard, and we may even go down a few seats from the last time, we will get the largest share,” he mentioned.
Mr. Bhujbal met The Hindu in Nashik, the place he was first tipped to contest but later withdrew from the fray, sowing doubts about dissension in the ranks of the ruling Mahayuthi. He mentioned that he had been sounded out to contest by senior leaders of the alliance, together with Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Devendra Fadnavis and even Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, round a month in the past, on the pageant of Holi, and at the moment, he had been advocating for his nephew, former MP Sameer Bhujbal. Soon after, he began preparations to contest. “But list after list has come out without my name, with news that the Shiv Sena (Shinde) was negotiating to hold on to the seat, and I felt humiliated, which is why I publicly withdrew from the contest,” he mentioned.
Being thought-about for the seat but adopted later by procrastination, he feels, owes additionally to the sensation that there’s a “Maratha versus all” kind of contest growing within the State, with confusion amongst political events over cope with the state of affairs within the gentle of the Maratha quota agitation led by Manoj Jarange-Patil.
“Whatever happened during the Maratha agitation, their striving for cutting into the OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservations, the violence that happened during the agitation, has created this situation. Some non-Maratha sections of the population feel why is it that only Marathas will get leadership roles, own sugar factories, dominate cooperative banks and milk cooperatives, and others are kept out,” Mr. Bhujbal mentioned.
Successive governments, he mentioned, had striven to deal with the difficulty, but Mr. Jarange-Patil’s agitation “was a bit much” because of his insistence that the Maratha quota ought to be carved out of the present OBC quota, a demand rejected by 4 commissions and later Supreme Court, he added.
“The violence in Beed made the political class agitated. They rushed to quell the violence and speak to him [Mr. Jarange-Patil], resulting in him becoming larger than life in the Maratha community. This has led to a backlash among the OBCs, who felt that the silence of people like Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray on the violence was telling. I could not bear the fact that I, as an OBC leader, was being taunted to quit by Opposition leaders, but more so when I heard an MLA in the Shiv Sena (Shinde) say that I should be kicked out of the government. This was too much, and therefore I attended a big meeting of OBC groups and offered to quit to fight the fight of the community. Amidst all this, elections were declared, and I was sounded out for the ticket, but successive lists came out and this seat wasn’t declared, and despite all communities pledging support to me here, I felt that I should withdraw from the fray,” he mentioned.
The OBC group, Mr. Bhujbal mentioned, feels oppressed. “Despite being 54% of the population, we are divided into 374 castes. The Maratha reservation agitation has struck fear in them [the OBCs]. There is a bit of consolidation after I raised their voice, but they still fear. The more Jarange-Patil says keep OBC leaders at home and don’t allow them to contest, the more that fear will grow,” Mr. Bhujbal mentioned.