Mumbai: To consolidate the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) base among the OBC communities, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is focusing on the Teli community and attended its national convention in Delhi on Saturday. Maharashtra has approximately 11 per cent voters who belong to this, which is the third largest in the OBC category after the Vanjari and the Mali.
The BJP, which has been nurturing its OBC votebank for the last three decades, fears a backlash from the Mali community following the arrest of senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal in 2016 in a money-laundering case, as he belongs to the community. Now it is being assumed that to re-establish himself in state politics, Mr Bhujbal would play the OBC card, which is likely to hurt the BJP.
Also, following the death of Gopinath Munde, the Vanjari community was expecting a bigger role for his daughter Pankaja Munde. But sidelining her has only given estranged cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde an opportunity to make inroads. Hence the BJP is now focussing on the next largest OBC community ahead of elections to compensate for losing support among the Malis and the Vanjaris.
Addressing the Teli Shahu Samaj, the CM said, “I become chief minister because the Teli community stood by me. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself from this community. I am committed to completing all the demands of community.”
“The Teli community is a nationwide community unlike the Vanjari. Reaching out to their national convention would help BJP all over India,” said social expert Prakash Powar.
Interestingly, the community’s national president is NCP leader Jayadatta Kshirsagar, who is believed to be sulking in his party these days. There is a buzz about his increasing closeness to Mr Fadnavis and one cant rule out the possibility of another strong NCP leader entering the BJP fold.
