Pune: A Brahmin versus Maratha tussle started on social media following BJP State President and District Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil’s candidature from the Kothrud constituency. Patil is facing resistance even before he could file papers for his first Assembly election in the Kothrud Assembly constituency.
After BJP finalised Patil’s candidature for the Kothrud, sitting MLA Medha Kulkarni was upset. However, her opinion may not carry weight as Patil is a senior leader and the State president of the party. She announced she will work for Patil’s victory. However, Kulkarni and Shiv Sena have gone on the back foot and have extended their support to Patil.
The Shiv Sena announced that Aditya Thackeray would contest the polls. He is being projected as the future deputy chief minister. In this backdrop, Shiv Sena doesn’t want to invite any controversy by making any negative comment on Patil’s candidature.
Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Brahman Mahasangh has strongly opposed Patil’s candidature. Kothrud is a BJP bastion where a majority of voters are from the Brahmin community. The Mahasangh has threatened to field their own candidate.
Commenting on the issue, Mahasangh office-bearer Anand Dave said, “We will oppose Patil in Kothrud. He has played a role in driving out the Brahmin community members from the Mahalaxmi Mandir in Kolhapur. The community has always been supportive of the BJP.”
He alleged that the BJP has politicised the caste and reservation issues and denied reservations to Brahmins. In the history of Kothrud constituency, BJP has fielded Brahmin candidates Anna Joshi and Medha Kulkarni, who won the seat. Shiv Sena had fielded Shashkant Sutar, a Maratha candidate.
Kothrud is considered a stronghold of Shiv Sena and BJP.
The BJP won the Kothrud seat from 1982 to 1986. BJP senior leader Anna Joshi was elected twice from Kothrud in 1982 and 1986. After that, Kothrud supported Shiv Sena and Shashikant Sutar was elected in 1990. This was the first election of the formation of the BJP-Sena alliance.
Both parties allied during 1989 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Shiv Sena won from Kothrud till 2009. Chandrakant Mokate was the last Shiv Sena candidate who won the seat in 2009.
After that, the alliance was temporarily broken during October 2014 Assembly polls in which they contested elections separately during the Assembly polls. BJP’s Medha Kulkarni contested the elections from Kothrud against Sena’s Chandrakant Mokate.
Kulkarni won the seat with a lead of around 65,000 votes and Kothrud became a BJP bastion. Kulkarni took efforts to snatch the seat from Sena and now, the party has decided to give the seat to Patil as the party does not find any other seat as a safe constituency in western Maharashtra.
