Jarange Patil makes U-turn, decides to walk out of poll fray

“We have decided not to contest the elections. I have asked aspirants to withdraw their nominations... I have told my community that this is not our family business, we might be misled,” Jarange-Patil told reporters in Antarwali-Saraati in Jalna district on Monday.

Jarange Patil held a meeting with his followers at Dharashiv (Marathwada). (File photo)

Hours after vowing to take “revenge” against the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra for “denying” the benefit of reservation to the Maratha community, activist Manoj Jarange Patil did a U-turn on Monday while announcing he will not field any candidates for the assembly election. Jarange left it to the Maratha community to decide whom to defeat and whom to get elected, bringing much relief to the BJP which had become his favourite whipping horse.

“We have decided not to contest the elections. I have asked aspirants to withdraw their nominations… I have told my community that this is not our family business, we might be misled,” Jarange-Patil told reporters in Antarwali-Saraati in Jalna district on Monday.

He also denied that he was taking the decision under duress. “There is no pressure on me,” he said.

Jarange Patil said he decided to withdraw as he had not received the list of candidates from those whom he tried to strike an alliance with – the Muslim and Dalit religious leaders. “We cannot contest elections on the basis of one community. Even a party like the BJP needed support from two other parties to run,” he emphasised.

Stating that he has not extended support to any Independent candidate or political parties, Jarange Patil also said he will not direct the Maratha community to defeat candidates. “I do not want to direct the Maratha community to defeat any candidates… The community has to take a decision in this regard,” he said.

“Because of some hurdles, the list from our alliance partners did not reach us. However, we will remain together in future as well. This is politics, such things happen. I don’t want to tell the community that it should defeat some candidates… People should take their own decision as to whom needs to be defeated and who should be elected,” he added.

Citing reasons for his withdrawal, Jarange said, “I was holding discussions with leaders of friendly parties till midnight. We had finalised 14 candidates. However, other communities did not send their list. We were therefore not in a position to announce the names of candidates. We cannot win elections on the basis of one community,” he said.

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Jarange Patil’s turnaround came hours after he held a press conference at around 11 pm on Sunday, saying he would take “revenge” against the BJP-led Mahayuti for denying the Maratha community reservation. Jarange Patil had also said he would declare the names of 25 candidates he was planning to back by 7 am on Monday morning.

“We have decided to field candidates in 25 Assembly seats. Our candidates will have the support of the Maratha, Muslim and Dalit communities. We have finished discussions to 25 seats and talks on the remaining 11 constituencies is underway,” Jarange Patil had said.

Breaking down at the 11 pm press conference on Sunday, he had also vowed to act against the ruling parties for “humiliating” and “cheating” the Maratha community on the issue of reservation. “Nobody has cheated the Maratha community like the current rulers have done. They have brazenly cheated us, humiliated us and troubled us,” he had said. “We will take revenge, we will send the ruling parties packing,” he added. The following morning, he sang a different tune.

As Jarange withdrew his possible candidates from the election fray, the BJP was the first to heave a sigh of relief. BJP spokesperson Pravin Darekar said the decision was sensible. “The election turf is a complicated place… He has taken the right decision in the interest of the Maratha community,” he said.

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His bitter critic, state minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said, “Jarange has taken the right decision. I welcome his move. Better late than never. It is not possible to fight elections on the basis of one community. Now the Maratha community will breathe easy. They will not have any pressure. The communty has 60-70 per cent candidates in the election fray.”

The Maha Vikas Aghadi said it was entirely his decision and would not like to put any spin to it. “If he had fielded candidates, it might have benefitted the BJP,” said NCP (SP) national president Sharad Pawar. Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “It was entirely his decision. We have nothing to say about it. He is capable of taking his own decisions. He was leading a social movement and not a political one.”

The Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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