LS polls: Unrest among Maratha community and farmers led to NDA's loss in Marathwada, say analysts

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: Unrest among the Maratha community members as well as farmers and lack of big development projects in the region could be some of the key factors responsible for the defeat of the NDA candidates in Maharashtra's Marathwada in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, feel political analysts.

Marathwada comprises eight seats - Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, Osmanabad, Latur, Aurangabad, Jalna and Beed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost all four seats in the region that it contested, including Jalna where Union minister Raosaheb Danve bit the dust.

Sandipan Bhumare (Aurangabad) is the only candidate of Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti who won the Lok Sabha polls in Marathwada.

The Congress won all three seats (Nanded, Jalna, Latur) it contested, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) won three (Parbhani, Osmanabad and Hingoli) of the four seats it fought from. NCP (SP) clinched the Beed seat.

Talking to PTI, senior journalist Sanjiv Kulkarni referred to the move by former chief minister Ashok Chavan, who snapped his decades-long ties with the Congress and switched over to the BJP earlier this year.

"There was talk among local people that Congress gave so much to the Chavan family and there was absolutely no reason for (Ashok Chavan) to switch over to the BJP from the Congress. Also there was a huge disgruntlement among farmers over the crop prices," he said.

"People voted for Congress here even as no big party leader from the state or the Centre came to campaign here. This shows that people voted for Congress in Nanded on their own," he said.

Another journalist Datta Deshmukh said caste factor was dominant in Beed constituency, where BJP candidate and former state minister Pankaja Munde lost the election to NCP (SP) candidate Bajrang Sonawne, who won by a margin of 6,553 votes after a see-saw battle.

"During the Maratha quota agitation, several people committed suicide over the issue in Beed. But nobody took note of it. The offences registered in the initial phase of the quota protest also played a key role in this election. No development could be seen in terms of investment, infrastructure which was discussed by voters," he said.

People talked about the absence of Pankaja Munde from the constituency from 2019 and it turned out to be a decisive factor for her, Deshmukh said.

"Rising farm input prices was also an important factor. A farmer would spend nearly Rs 70,000 in 2014 for five acres of land annually, but these expenses have gone to Rs 3 lakh. In return, farmers get Rs 6,000 a year (from the government)," he said.

Senior journalist Dhananjay Lambe from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar said, "There was disgruntlement in the Maratha community, especially against BJP over the Maratha quota issue. This factor went against the BJP and its allies in Marathwada."

A few months back, quota activist Manoj Jarange had warned that the Maratha community would teach Maharashtra's Mahayuti government a lesson for denying reservations and registering criminal cases against protestors.

The Maratha quota agitation intensified in September 2023 after police lathi-charged protesters at Antarwali Sarati, in Marathwada region’s Jalna district, where Jarange had launched an indefinite hunger strike. It was followed by violent agitations in Beed and other areas of Marathwada in October, eventually forcing the government to hold talks with him.

Another senior journalist Ganesh Tulshi said there was discontent among the soybean and cotton growers in Marathwada.

"The rates of soybean and cotton will remain the same this year as they were in 2014. On the other hand, the expenses were high. There was an underlying effect of the farmer agitation in Delhi," he said.

Talking about the caste factor, he said, "The government promised to provide reservation to various communities in the state. But there was no unanimous stand among the government people to handle the quota agitation."

People were also disappointed over the state of political affairs in Maharashtra following a split in the two parties in the state and this was the first chance for the voters to express themselves, which they utilised, he said.