Pankaja Munde, Parinay Phuke, Amit Borkhe, Yogesh Tillekar and Sadabhai Khot.
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have given the deepest wounds to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, which the BJP is now busy healing. BJP is trying to regain its lost base ahead of assembly elections. BJP has fielded Pankaja Munde, Parinay Phuke, Amit Borkhe, Yogesh Tillekar and Sadabhau Khot as its candidates for the Legislative Council. The BJP has gambled on the pieces it lost in the Legislative Council elections. Pankada Munde, who lost the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2019 assembly elections, has expressed confidence. Similarly, it has been decided to make Parinay and Tilkar the MLCs who lost in the 2019 assembly elections.
Elections for 11 Legislative Council seats in Maharashtra are to be held on July 12. For this, BJP has made Pankaja Munde, Parinay Phuke, Amit Borkhe, Yogesh Tillekar and Sadabhai Khot as candidates for the Legislative Council by betting on OBCs. Maratha reservation versus OBC reservation in Maharashtra will cost BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Signs of political rehabilitation of leaders
In such a situation, BJP has given signals of political rehabilitation to its OBC leaders by announcing them as candidates in the Legislative Council elections. It is believed that the BJP has bet on the OBCs to improve its political equations for the Maharashtra assembly elections in October. Former minister Pankaja Munde lost the Parli seat to her cousin NCP candidate Dhananjay Munde in the 2019 assembly elections.
Since then, she has been blaming her defeat on BJP leaders, especially Devendra Fadnavis without naming them. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fielded Pankaja from the Beed seat, but he lost by a narrow margin. In such a situation, the BJP wants to send him to the legislative council to try to settle political equations before the assembly elections.
Pankaja is the daughter of former Union Minister Gopinath Munde.
Pankaja Munde is the daughter of former Union Minister Gopinath Munde and hails from the Vanjari community of OBCs. Gopinath Munde was one of the BJP leaders who worked hard to establish the political roots of the party in Maharashtra. He was considered the OBC face of the BJP in the state. After his death, Pankaja Munde decided to carry on his father’s legacy.
It is believed that the party wanted to avoid conflict with Fadnavis by inviting him into central politics, but unfortunately he lost the Lok Sabha elections. In such a situation, disappointment was seen among his supporters. Due to this, a decision has been taken to create MLC for damage control. Dr. from Vidarbha coming from Kunbi caste. BJP is also planning to make Parinay Phuke an MLC.
Sadabhai Khotan was also made a candidate
Parinay Phuke lost from Sakoli assembly seat in 2019 elections. Veteran BJP leader Yogesh Tillekar, who lost from Hadapsar assembly seat in the 2019 elections, has also been made a candidate. He comes from the Mali community. BJP has also decided to make Amit Gorakh of Mantag community as MLC. Not only this, Rait Kranti Party president Sadabhai Khot, who is part of Maharashtra’s NDA and hails from the Maratha community, has also been made the MLC candidate.
All the five BJP candidates have filed their nominations on Tuesday as well. The BJP has taken a very strategic step in view of the ongoing agitation over Maratha and OBC reservation in Maharashtra. Out of its five candidates, the BJP has fielded four from the OBC community and one from the Maratha community. BJP faced resentment from both the Maratha and OBC communities over the issue of reservation in the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP had to bear the brunt of this
The BJP failed to convince its old vote bank OBCs that their quota reservation would not be tampered with. BJP has to bear the brunt of this. Now she is focusing on making up for it in the Assembly elections in October. As for Pankaja, her father late Gopinath Munde was not only a senior leader of the Maharashtra BJP, but was also a prominent face of the Other Backward Class (OBC) community in Maharashtra. Hailing from the Vanjari community, Munde was an important link in the BJP’s ‘Madhav’ equation.
Since the formation of the BJP in Mumbai in 1980, the Maharashtra BJP had brought together castes like Mali, Dhanagar and Vanjari (Madhav) to form a vote bank that could compete with the strong Maratha vote bank of the Congress. This equation of BJP has been ruined in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP has tried to create a political balance
Hence, to solve the same equation, BJP has now again moved to create political balance by appointing Pankaja Munde, Yogesh Tillekar and Parinay Phuke as MLCs. All the three leaders hail from the OBC community. They have a strong hold on their area and society. In such a situation, it remains to be seen whether the BJP will be successful in trying to balance the equation by betting on the OBCs in the Legislative Council elections.
