Beed: Will Pankaja Munde be able to navigate through the electoral impact of Maratha agitation?

Apart from the hostility due to the police action, a statement by Munde also contributed to the Maratha ire.

When the BJP announced Pankaja Munde as its candidate for the Beed Lok Sabha seat, it was seen as her relaunch in the active politics. After her defeat in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections, she mostly remained in oblivion, although, the party had designated her as its National Secretary. Winning this election is vital for the sustenance of her political career. However, her path to victory is paved with thorns.

Since 2009, when the late Gopinath Munde was first elected from the seat, Beed has remained a bastion of the BJP. Munde repeated the victory in 2014 and was inducted into PM Narendra Modi's first cabinet. After his sudden demise in a road accident, Munde's younger daughter Pritam was nominated as the BJP candidate in the by-poll. She won again in 2019. However, the party has replaced Pritam with her elder sister Pankaja this time. However, considering the scenario on the ground, the BJP couldn't be sure of her victory. This time the contest is seen less between the candidates and more between the castes.

The Maratha reservation agitation which began last year in August and continued till January 2024, has impacted the electoral process in the Marathwada region. Beed had become the epicentre of violence when Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil sat on a hunger strike. The agitators had burnt down houses and vehicles of legislators in the area and did extensive damage to private and public properties. As the police acted strongly against the agitators, it led to antagonisation of the BJP against Marathas since the home portfolio in the Eknath Shinde government is with the BJP.

Apart from the hostility due to the police action, a statement by Munde also contributed to the Maratha ire. She said that if the government wants to give reservation to Marathas in government jobs and education then it should be out of OBC quota. Pankaja is a leader of the OBC community and was addressing their concern. The OBC organisations feared that reservation to Marathas from their quota would cut down the opportunities for the OBCs.

The Maratha voters are around 7 lakh in the Beed constituency and taking advantage of the caste conflict, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has pitted a Maratha leader Bajrang Sonawane against her. Sonawane had unsuccessfully contested last election as well but managed to fetch around five lakh votes. The contest in Beed is now Maratha Vs OBC with Sonawane and Munde as the faces of their respective communities.

The opposition to the BJP was evident on the ground as Munde wasn't even allowed to get out of her car in some villages where she went to campaign. The BJP stalwarts like PM Modi and Nitin Gadkari have organised rallies for Munde, however, Devendra Fadnavis, who happens to be Home Minister, was deliberately kept out of her electoral campaign.

However, the BJP insiders believe that Pankaja may benefit from the division of votes in the Maratha community. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has given candidature to a Maratha candidate. Her cousin Dhananjay Munde, an MLA of NCP who defeated her in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, is also campaigning for her. Many prominent Maratha leaders from the BJP have expressed their support for Pankaja.

The Mahayuti alliance led by the BJP has set up a target of winning 45 seats out of 48. However, there a certain seats where there is a neck-to-neck fight and Beed is one of them.