A caste conundrum for BJP, allies in Maharashtra

In the 2024 LS polls, caste played its part with mutating combinations across the state

- SHREYAS UBGADE

Now that he is in the twilight of his political career, the name of Rajabhau Ganeshrao Thakre, a Kunbi leader from the cotton-growing district Yavatmal in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, does not ring a bell. But, almost three decades ago, in 1996, Thakre had hit the national headlines.

In the Lok Sabha elections that year, the Congress overlooked its four-time sitting member of Parliament Uttamrao Deorao Patil, also a Kunbi leader, and parachuted then Union civil aviation minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to fight from Yavatmal. The Congress hoped it would be a "safe landing" for Azad in the constituency it had never lost. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded Thakre.

In Vidarbha, the Kunbis, a dominant agrarian caste, traditionally support the Congress.

When the ballots were opened on the counting day, Thakre had trounced Azad by a margin of 38,000 votes. Stung by the defeat, the Congress made a course correction. In the next Lok Sabha (LS) election, it brought back Patil, who wrested the seat from Thakre.

The BJP too learnt its lessons. It sensed that with the right caste combination in the Mandal era, it could mount a serious challenge to the Congress.

"The BJP worked on the Mali-Dhangar-Vanjari (Madhav) caste combination in Maharashtra," says Sudhir Pathak, former editor of Tarun Bharat, a newspaper seen sympathetic to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Part of the BJP-Shiv Sena (undivided) strategy was to counter what is seen by election watchers in Vidarbha as the Congress's DalitMuslim-Kunbi formula.