As Maharashtra rejigs Maratha quota panel with Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil as head, who will benefit?

The Government’s response is an indicator that, given the past experience, it does not want the Maratha reservation issue to get out of control. Fadnavis thus reconstituted the subcommittee by replacing minister Chandrakant Patil with Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil as its chief. The subcommittee has representation from all three ruling parties–the BJP, Shiv Sena, and the NCP. The other ministers in the panel are Girish Mahajan, Ashish Shelar, Shivendraraje Bhosale, Uday Samant, Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraj Desai, Manikrao Kokate, Babasaheb Patil, Makrand Patil. A secretary from the general administration department is also a member.

With local body elections due later this year, the BJP realises that a statewide agitation for a Maratha quota has the potential to trigger unrest, which does not augur well for the law and order situation. Interestingly, Fadnavis holds the important home portfolio.

Manoj Jarange-Patil’s warning for Government

Two years ago, on August 29, 2023, Fadnavis, as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led coalition Government, invited wrath after the police lathicharged Maratha protesters at Antarwali Sarathi in Jalna district. Fadnavis has now effected a course correction to handle the situation through dialogue with Jarange-Patil’s team.

Last month Jarange-Patil warned at a public meeting in Dharashiv, “Don’t meddle in our morcha. You have done it in the past and paid a heavy price. The community is fighting for its rights. I represent the poor and oppressed Marathas who are denied quotas. Any attempt on your part (Devendra Fadnavis) will invite backlash. And its consequences will adversely affect not only the Maharashtra Government, but also the Narendra Modi Government.”
The weak Opposition has given the BJP reasons to turn every situation to its political advantage. And it knows if the Maratha reservation agitation is handled carefully, it could win electoral benefits.

A senior NJP functionary said, “Unlike in 2023-24, Maratha reservation protesters are not against the BJP entirely. A sizeable segment, which was upset with the BJP because of the police action, gave their verdict by distancing from the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. They heeded Jarange-Patil’s clarion call to boycott BJP candidates in parliamentary polls. As a result, the BJP won just nine seats out of 28 contested.”

However, within the next six months, the BJP’s initiative to reach out to the Maratha community, combined with the consolidation of OBCs, yielded grand success with the party winning 132 Assembly seats out of the 148 contested. Along with alliance partners Shiv Sena ( 57) and NCP ( 41), it got a majority of 230 out of 288 seats in the Assembly.

BJP and conflict within Mahayuti

The local body elections this year will be a first test for the BJP to reassess its electoral position. The challenge for the BJP is not from Maha Vikas Aghadi, but conflict within Mahayuti, a NCP minister said, drawing attention to how the Maratha agitation was exploited by Shinde against Fadnavis in 2023-24 to reassert his Maratha leadership in Maharashtra.

By making Vikhe-Patil the head of the subcommittee, the BJP has given out a subtle message to both in-house constituents as well as the Opposition. Vikhe-Patil is an established Maratha leader whose three generations have shown how a development model can transform people and a region through pioneering work in the cooperative and education sectors.

The guidelines for the subcommittee are to coordinate with courts, establish continuous dialogue with Jarange-Patil and other protestors, review and implement a slew of welfare schemes for Marathas through SARTHI, Annabhau Sathe Arthik Mahamandal, etc…

Who will benefit from Maratha quota?

Every agitation has political patronage, and its impact on politics and polls is inevitable. In 2017-2018, when the Maratha reservation agitation reached its peak through 58 rallies in the first phase and violence in the second phase, it was an alarm for the Fadnavis-led coalition Government. The agitation gave a section within the BJP a reason to call for a change of leadership by replacing a Brahmin CM with a Maratha. However, PM Narendra Modi had ruled it out. In Fadnavis, the central leadership saw an able administrator who would find ways to resolve the political crisis through dialogue. Accordingly, he played a masterstroke by announcing 12 and 13 per cent quota in jobs and education to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class Act.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP emerged as the largest party, winning 105 out of the 288 seats. Yet, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s decision to sever ties with the right wing and form a Government with the rival Congress and NCP shocked the saffron party. It was relegated to the opposition’s role. Yet, the BJP bounced back to power by engineering a split in Thackeray’s party, with Eknath Shinde heading the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition from 2022 to 2024 as chief minister.

During the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi Government, the Maratha agitation was relatively low-key with no protest on the streets. The Supreme Court rejected the Maratha reservation, questioning the community’s social backwardness and lack of scientific data. It urged the Government to fulfill parameters like constituting a Backward Class Commission and furnishing empirical data.

In 2022-2024, the Shinde Government passed legislation providing quotas for the Maratha in jobs and education. But the matter was challenged and is pending in court. While some segments within the Maratha accepted it, Jarange-Patil opposed the 10 per cent quota.

Jarange-Patil wants Maratha reservation within the OBC quota. In Maharashtra, OBCs are entitled to 27 per cent quota. Along with other groups including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, Special Backward Category, Nomadic Tribes, it makes up 51 per cent.

Jarange-Patil’s quota within OBC

As Jarange-Patil revives his Maratha plank, he has stuck to his stated position demanding quota within OBC—a demand that the BJP-led government cannot fulfill at any cost. Any attempt to tamper with the OBC quota would invite huge backlash from the communities.

Maharashtra OBC Mahasangh president Babanrao Taywade warned, “We will not compromise on our existing 27 per cent quota for OBC. We are not against the Maratha reservation. But they should get it separately. We will not allow the inclusion of the Maratha quota within the OBC.”

By attending the OBC Conclave held at Gao last month, Fadnavis also signalled that his Government and party would safeguard the OBC quota.

“There is no question of compromising the OBC quota, ” he repeatedly said.

Will Jarange-Patil’s agitation help Opposition?

The Opposition Congress, NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) will have to mobilise grassroots support to take advantage of the Maratha reservation issue. Jarange-Patil is unlikely to relinquish his leadership role in the Maratha agitation to any political party, and his approach will be pragmatic.

In such a scenario, the Opposition will have a limited role. Secondly, the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) have also realised that they cannot gain statewide acceptance by taking up the cause of one community. They will have to address the entire state.

Not surprisingly, NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar has reached out to OBC communities. While his stature as a national leader is already established, Pawar is the unchallenged leader of the Marathas. Prominent Maratha leaders had dominated the undivided NCP since its inception. Yet Pawar always exercised caution to strike a balance by empowering OBC, tribal, and Dalit leaders too.

In the 2024 Assembly polls, the BJP’s strategy to reach out to the most backward among the OBCs while pursuing a hardline Hindutva agenda worked well.

In such a situation, the Opposition will have to strive harder to regain the confidence of both OBC and Marathas. It cannot bank on Jarange-Patil’s agitation alone to enhance its electoral fortunes in local bodies, especially when the Mahayuti coalition has more than two dozen prominent Maratha leaders. Both Shiv Sena and NCP are led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, both from the Maratha community.

Why Jarange-Patil will have to take a practical approach?

In any agitation, conviction, content, commitment, and cause are decisive. While there is a sizeable section of Marathas who face financial and educational backwardness, a reservation formula has to be acceptable to one and all. More importantly, it should be valid both constitutionally and legally.

A senior Maratha Kranti Morcha coordinator said, requesting anonymity, “Maratha reservation is very complex as it is not socially backward. It has always been a forward caste. At the same time, there are sizeable segments who are very poor and illiterate. If we have to address their concern, we have to look for practical solutions that will fit within the Constitutional framework and withstand legal challenges.”

Jarange-Patil’s flip-flop from demands for 16 per cent separate reservation to OBC caste certificates for Marathas to inclusion under the OBC quota has created confusion and chaos and led to disillusionment among leaders who were at the forefront of the agitation in 2017-2018.

How did Jarange-Patil start his agitation?

On August 29, 2023, Jarange-Patil held a demonstration at his native Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district in the Marathwada region. Shinde was the chief minister and Fadnavis his deputy, holding the home portfolio. The 43-year-old Maratha activist was then seen just as a local leader. However, police lathicharge on the violent protesters invited a sharp reaction from the community across Maharashtra. Jarange Patil thus became a larger-than-life leader, drawing support from the masses as well as patronage from politicians critical of the BJP-led Mahayuti Government, even as prominent Maratha leaders resented his rise.

Although the demand for Maratha reservation was voiced way back in the 1980s, it took the form of an organised protest in 2016-2018 during the first tenure of the Fadnavis Government (2014-2019). The agitation for reservation was organised as Maratha Kranti Morcha. The first phase of the agitation, which saw 58 silent rallies across Maharashtra, was peaceful and highly disciplined from 2016 to 2017. The second phase— from 2017-2018—rocked the state following a spate of suicides and saw the Government expeditiously set up the M G Gaikwad Commission, which gave its go-ahead for a Maratha quota. The Government then came out with the Socially and Educationally Backward Class Act to provide the Marathas with 12 and 13 per cent reservation in education and jobs.

However, the quotas were challenged in the Supreme Court by a PIL petition that questioned the Maratha’s social backwardness. The apex court struck down the reservation on the grounds that the quota breached the 50 per cent ceiling that the court had set in a previous case. Questions were also raised about the social backwardness of Marathas, which has been a politically dominant community making up 33 per cent of the state population.
While Jarange-Patil played a proactive role in all these agitations as an activist, he had not yet risen to the stature of a leader. In the past, he had associated himself with the Congress at the taluka level. However, he soon left the party and started the Shivba Sanghatana in 2011. His stated objective of the newly formed organisation was to campaign for the rights of the Marathas.

Like any other youth, he was also highly influenced by the role of the Maratha warrior kings Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji Maharaj. He took the lead along with other villagers in organising the birth anniversaries of Shivaji and Sambhaji Maharaj and also addressed the rural audience. He had actively participated in organising a play on Sambhaji Raje enacted by NCP MP Amol Kolhe in his taluka.

The rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district, which led the Marathas to consolidate and plan an agitation, also had a lasting influence on Jarange-Patil. He participated in long marches in the Marathwada region as an activist.