In an apparent attempt to cash in on its popularity gained during its crusade for Maratha reservations for the past two years, the hitherto social outfit Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) on Monday floated a political party, Maratha Kranti Sena — (MKS) and announced that the new party would contest all the 48 Lok Sabha and 288 Assembly seats in the forthcoming elections in the State.
A day after the Maharashtra Government accepted the recommendations of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) and announced that it would grant reservations to Maratha community under a new Socially Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category, MKM convenor Suresh Patil, along with the outfit’s senior leaders Bapusaheb Shirsat and Nanasaheb Moshre, announced the formation of the MKM and said that it would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and subsequent Assembly elections in the State.
Addressing a news conference at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, Patil said: “Our party Maratha Kranti Sena will contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra. We are convening our party’s first convention at Vadgaon in Hatkanangale town in Kolhapur district on November 25. At this convention, we will devise a strategy mobilise cadres for our new political party in the run-up the Lok Sabha polls to be held in May next year”.
As a first step towards roping in a prominent political personality into their party, Patil urged Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji’s descendant and NCP MP from Satara Udayanraje Bhosale to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls on a MKS ticket. “Since he has extended his blessings to our political, we would like to contest the Lok Sabha polls on MKS ticket. We will call on him tomorrow at Satara and discuss issues relating our political party,” Patil said.
The significance behind the formation of a political party by the MKS should be seen in the context of massive mobilisation of Marathas as part of as many 58 mammoth silent morchas organised by MKM in various district headquarters and major towns and cities across Maharashtra to demand reservations for Maratha community which accounts of 32 per cent of the state’s total population.
It is mainly because of the tremendous pressure mounted by the MKM – which enjoyed the support of the Opposition Congress, NCP and ruling Shiv Sena — on the ruling BJP that the Devendra Fadnavis Government has now decided to accord reservations to the Maratha community under an independent SEBC category. During the winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature that began on Monday, the State Government is likely to introduce a bill according reservations to Maratha community.
It may be recalled that after a 15-year-old Maratha girl from their community was gang-raped and murdered allegedly by three Dalit men in Ahmednagar district of western Maharashtra on July 13, 2016, members of Maratha community came together and floated Maratha Kranti Morcha to demand among other things demanding reservations in education and jobs to Marathas, scrapping of the “misused SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, initiation of stern action against the culprits behind the gang-rape of the Maratha girl.
The MKM took out silent morchas in one and district headquarter or major town after another to press for its various demands. Despite being without a prominent leader to head the outfit, the MKM became a force toreckon with in the following months.
The tremendous response that the MKM evoked for its massive silent morchas benumbed the Maharashtra Government and various political parties. What captured the attention of the state government, various political parties and people across the state was the disciplined and peaceful manner in which an apolitical outfit like MKM organised its various silent morchas.
On August 9 last year, more than five lakh Marathas owing allegiance to MKM virtually laid seize to south Mumbai for nearly six hours to press for reservations and other demands, compelling the BJP-led saffron alliance Government to come with a package for Marathas, including concessions in education along the lines of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and announce its readiness to accord reservations to the community in education and Government jobs.
Mumbai’s was the 58th silent morcha that the MKM took out every since the members of Maratha community came together and floated the outfit in August 2016. Later on, MKS also became a party to the public interest litigations in the Bombay High Court which on August 7 2018 directed the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) would submit its report to the State Government on the socio-economic status of the Marathas by November 15, so as to expedite the process of according reservations to Marathas.
It remains to be seen if the new political outfit MKS would evoke as much response from the people in the run-up to the Lok Sabha as the MKM evoked during the course of its 58 silent morchas taken out in various parts of the State for a period spanning one full year.