In a bid to win the support of Maratha hardliners, NCP leader Ajit Pawar claimed that although the ruling BJP makes use of lower caste people, it gives benefits only to those from the upper castes. He said leaders like N.S. Farande and Gopinath Munde had changed the face of the party but were later sidelined by the BJP.
Mr Pawar’s speech came ahead of local body elections, and in a bid to win support of Maratha hardliners such as Maratha Mahasangh and Sambhaji Brigade who are supposed to be behind the huge Maratha rallies being taken out off late.
Addressing a gathering of party workers in Madha of Solapur district, the former deputy chief minister termed the Devendra Fadnavis led state government as “Bhataji -Shetaji’s (Brahmin-Jain-Gujarari traders) government.”
“BJP spread across the state by the hard work of Bahujan (other backward class) leaders such as N.S. Farande (former speaker of Assembly), Anna Dange (former minister), Gopinath Munde and many others. They changed the face of the party . But when BJP came into power, these Bahujan leaders were sidelined by the party.”
Mr Pawar said. He added that these leaders were replaced by Brahmin and Jain-Marwari leaders such as Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and Suresh Prabhu. “BJP has left the ideology of Phule-Shahu –Ambedkar,” charged Mr Pawar.
According to Madhav Bhandari, BJP spokesperson, the NCP leader is trying to woo Maratha voters as his party feared it has lost its control among the Maratha community.
“NCP leaders are extremely disturbed by the Maratha Kranti Morcha and they fear that if the community goes against the NCP in the upcoming local body elections including municipal council and zilla parishad, NCP will lose power at many places. Hence Mr Pawar is trying to woo the Maratha community by playing the caste card,” said Mr Bhandari.
Convenor of Maharashtra OBC Corporation, professor Shravan Deore, said, “The Pawars and their party NCP have always protected and encouraged anti-Brahmin ideologies. In fact they have taken a stand that if BJP has Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, we (NCP) should have Maratha Mahasangh.”
