BJP: BJP’s Strategic Candidate List Balances Maratha and OBC Interests in Maharashtra Elections | Mumbai News

PUNE: The BJP’s first list of 99 names announced on Sunday for the state assembly election is based on Haryana’s Jat-OBC formula and shows the party’s efforts to strike a balance between Maratha and OBC candidates with prominent names from both communities getting tickets.
Going with experienced members in the first list, the BJP nominated deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, cabinet ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and others.According to a senior BJP member, a lot of thought was given to the ‘Manoj Jarange factor’ which dented the party’s prospects during the Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra.

“Jarange’s agitation for Maratha reservation consolidated votes against the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha polls. Based on this experience, the party analysed the ‘Jarange factor’ in detail and instead of getting into an overcorrection mode and giving more Maratha candidates, our party balanced it well while giving representation to different communities,” a BJP member told TOI.

Both communities are likely to play an important role in candidates’ wins or losses. According to BJP members, instead of giving importance to the number of candidates from a particular community, it has gone with known names from the Maratha and the OBC communities. Thus, the party expects to send a positive signal to both communities.
“It is Vikhe Patil in Ahilyanagar, Ashok Chavan’s daughter and Raosaheb Danve’s son from Marathwada and Nitesh Rane from Konkan. The party has gone ahead with these families that are well-known in the Maratha community. On the other hand, it has also given candidature to OBC leaders like Bawankule, Mungantiwar and Tushar Rathod to send out a message to the community that the party is not being partial towards a particular community,” another senior member told TOI.
Political experts said BJP has worked out the caste pattern in Maharashtra on the lines of the Haryana assembly elections. Political analyst Prakash Pawar told TOI, “The first list indicates it followed the Haryana pattern. The party has got into social engineering where, on the one hand, it is planning to keep its OBC votes intact, and on the other hand, it is trying to regain Maratha votes.”