Beed murder and Maratha mobilisation

The last 10 days saw three major rallies demanding justice for Santosh Deshmukh, a sarpanch in Beed district who was brutally murdered for resisting an extortion bid.

- SHAILESH GAIKWAD

Silent marches followed by public meetings were held at Latur, Beed, Parbhani and Pune in a fortnight.

These marches were reminiscent of the ones organised for Maratha reservation in the past.

There is no secret that a majority of the participants in these silent marches were from the Maratha community.

There is a strong Maratha vs Vanjari undertone to the Deshmukh murder case.

The tussle has been going on in Beed ever since Manoj Jarange-Patil led the agitation for Maratha reservation from OBC quota last year.

Mahayuti leaders, especially in the BJP, suspect that the murder issue is again leading to Maratha mobilisation, especially with Jarange-Patil's participation in the agitations.

In 2016, a rape and murder case in Kopardi, Ahmednagar had led to Maratha mobilisation with silent marches later taking on the form of agitations for reservation in jobs and education.

The Mahayuti leaders are now keeping an eye on the marches to see if they also take a similar turn.

Anticipating this, BJP's Maratha leaders have also been participating in the marches.

BJP's MLA from Beed district Suresh Dhas is already leading the campaign demanding removal of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde from the state cabinet as the latter's close aide Walmik Karad's role is being probed in the case.

In a march in Parbhani, labour leader and BJP leader Narendra Patil also took part.