Akshay Gujar
It has been a decade that the Modi Government is in power in the centre and as the ruling party in other states. Maharashtra also couldn’t resist the Modi wave in its state election of 2014 and BJP ruled the state from 2014 till 2019 with the support of its natural ally Shiv Sena. In 2019, a dispute about the CM position between Shiv Sena and BJP led to unexpected political moves. Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA), an alliance of Shiv Sena with NCP and Congress emerged and Uddhav Thackeray became the CM of Maharashtra. But this alliance couldn’t last long due to ideological differences and the internal rebellion in the Shiv Sena by Eknath Shinde. The whole tussle resulted in the split of the Shiv Sena party, with Eknath Shinde and his supporting MLAs claiming themselves to be the real Shiv Sena. Eknath Shinde became the CM with the support of BJP. Later NCP also went through internal fights with one faction giving support to the government under the leadership of Ajit Pawar. At this point the opposition consisted of Congress, NCP(Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena(UBT).
In the state elections of 2024 that happened after two and half years, witnessed astonishing actions from dominant political parties and their factions, Mahayuti alliance (BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP(Ajit Pawar), RPI(A)) won with a total of 230 seats. BJP won 132 seats, Shiv Sena 57 and NCP(Ajit Pawar) 41 seats. Whereas the MVA(Congress, NCP(Sharadchandra Pawar), Shiv Sena(UBT) and Samajwadi Party) faced a huge defeat in this election. Congress won 10 seats, NCP(Sharadchandra Pawar) won 10 seats, Shiv Sena(UBT) won 20 seats and Samajwadi Party won 2 seats. Other parties won 10 seats in the election.
The only Ambedkarite party with Mahayuti is Republican Party of India (A). But it could not secure a single seat in this election. National president Ramdas Athawale is a member of Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, Prakash Ambedkar (Grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar) formed Maharashtra Lokshahi Aghadi(Maharashtra Democratic Front) as a third front in 2014 but couldn’t secure any seats in both the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections. Following the principle of independent politics he came up with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi(VBA) as a new front which contested both the Lok Sabha and State elections of 2019. Many VBA candidates were first runners up in their constituencies but ultimately failed to secure any seats including Akola Parliamentary constituency which is the home ground of Prakash Ambedkar.
VBA secured 14 lakh votes (3%) in the 2024 assembly election by contesting 200 seats. It affected 20 seats of Maha Vikas Aghadi. VBA declined in their vote share compared to previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) is a national party holding the identity of Bahujan populace but it is weak in Maharashtra and it could only secure 3 lakh votes(0.48%) in the 2024 Assembly election by contesting 237 seats. There were a total 14 Ambedkarite political parties contesting the assembly election with 674 candidates. Since the cadre based program of BSP has stopped, it failed to attract youth and other marginalized groups of the society toward the party. Not only BSP but other Ambedkarite parties in Maharashtra are also not seen as being interested in running the cadre based programs for the consolidation of Dalits and Bahujans. Therefore they dont have strong party workers at the grassroot level to convey the vision and mission of the party towards the voters.
Although RPI(A) is in Mahayuti Alliance but it struggled to get seat share in Lok Sabha and assembly elections of 2024. BSP and VBA have not shown interest in making alliance with other political parties to improve their seat share. Other Ambedkarite parties such as Republican Sena, Bahujan Republican Socialist Party(BRSP), Peoples Republican Party etc. having minuscule presence on the ground made alliances, but were not strong enough to win seats. Ambedkarite political leaders have failed in negotiations and in strategic planning to make Ambedkarite politics stronger in Maharashtra. Continuously losing the Lok Sabha and State Assembly election from 2014 have resulted in the isolation of Ambedkarite parties and organizations from power politics.
Ambedkarite political parties have failed to consolidate the 11% of Scheduled Caste groups as well as OBC groups on the political platform and are losing their hold on the Dalit community. Inversely, BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP(Ajit Pawar) have successfully secured Dalits, Tribal and OBC votes by targeting micro & macro caste groups and communities in the 2024 Assembly elections. This is because of the wavering attitude of Ambedkarite parties with regard to making alliances either with right wing political parties or secular parties. Some Republican parties have been supporting the Mahayuti and others are in the camp of MVA in the recent 2024 assembly election. This situation has left the Ambedkarite voters confused and these votes have been scattered across all the major political parties.
Ambedkarite parties target Ambedkarite voters who are being disappointed with results like winning zero seats in the elections.
The numerous factions of Ambedkarite parties, the wavering attitude in making alliances, lack of strategic negotiations, absence of cadre based program at grassroot level, lack of organizational change over a period of time & vague vision and mission of these parties are together culminating into weaker and irrelevant Ambedkarite politics year by year in Maharashtra. Appropriation of Babasaheb in the politics by Hindutva political party and on the other hand Congress occupying Dalit political space through ‘Save Constitution’ campaign national level that benefited them in Lok Sabha election 2024, is weakening the independent Ambedkarite politics.
According to a senior Ambedkarite political leader, Indian Constitution expert and National President of BRSP, Dr. Suresh Mane said, Ambedkarite parties have failed to maintain balance between the ideological politics and practical politics which BSP did in Uttar Pradesh successfully. Additionally, he expressed the need for reconstruction of Ambedkarite Movement and Ambedkarite Politics in Maharashtra.
What kind of strategies and agenda do these Ambedkarites parties adopt to overcome the spate of failures? How long will the Ambedkarite Parties be out of power share? Lastly, how will Ambedkarite parties break their political isolation? The answers of these questions need to be hammered out by Ambedkarite political parties & organizations for a stronger Ambedkarite politics in the upcoming days.
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Akshay Gujar is a social science researcher and political consultant, with a post-graduate degree from Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) in M.A in Social Work Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action.
