THE DALIT OUTREACH

Desperate times, they say, call for desperate measures. With the upcoming civic elections becoming a prestige fight and deemed the penultimate battle before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the two rival Shiv Sena factions are outdoing each other to woo Dalit groups.

- Dhaval Kulkarni

So, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction is working on an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar, chief of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, while the breakaway Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) under Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has tied up with the Peoples Republican Party (PRP) led by former Lok Sabha MP Jogendra Kawade. The BJP, the senior ally of the BSS, is already in an alliance with Ramdas Athawale, who leads his own faction of the Republican Party of India (RPI), and is a minister of state in the Narendra Modi government.

It is easy to see why mainstream political parties are on an overdrive to woo the RPI factions and, by extension, the neo-Buddhist Dalits.

The neo-Buddhists (erstwhile Mahars who converted to Buddhism with Ambedkar in 1956) comprise 7-8 per cent of the state's population and are the largest group among the Dalits. Also seen as the most militant section among Dalits, they're easy to mobilise around issues. Maharashtra has around 59 Scheduled Caste (SC) groups. Though no community votes as a monolithic bloc, the various RPI groups enjoy support among the neo-Buddhist Dalits.

On November 20, Uddhav and Prakash had shared the dais at an event to relaunch a portal on the works of 'Prabodhankar' Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, who was among the foremost social reformers of Maharashtra. Prabodhankar was Uddhav's grandfather and one of the prime proponents of proBahujan (non-Brahmin) Hindutva. He was also an associate of Dr Ambedkar.

This meeting between the two grandsons set the ball rolling for an alliance for the civic polls in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur.