Amidst the assembly election campaign in Maharashtra, Maratha activist Manoj Jarange surprised everyone with his decision. Today was the last day for withdrawal of nominations, but before that Jarange has announced his withdrawal from the elections. He also appealed to those who had filled the applications for their candidature. Jarange asked those people also to withdraw their nomination. Due to this sudden U-turn of Manoj Jarange Patil, the tension of Mahayuti has increased more than that of Mahavikas Aghadi.
According to the report of TV9 Marathi, Manoj Jarange said that politics is not our main business, hence we have not supported any party. The whole country has seen what happened to those who raised slogans of Rs 400. Even though we have retreated, there is no doubt that the dominance of the Maratha community as voters will continue.
Impact in Marathwada and Western Maharashtra
Manoj Jarange Patil has maximum influence in Marathwada and Western Maharashtra. Jarange Patil had targeted BJP on the issue of reservation during the Lok Sabha elections. This dealt a big blow to BJP. There are a total of eight Lok Sabha seats in Marathwada, out of which Mahayuti candidates lost on six seats. It was also seen that the Jarangi factor was going on in Western Maharashtra also. Mahayuti candidates lost in constituencies like Solapur, Madha, Ahmednagar.
Meanwhile, if Jarrange Patil had fielded a candidate for the assembly elections, Maratha, Muslim and Dalit votes would have been divided. Mahavikas Aghadi must have suffered the most loss. But Jarange Patil has withdrawn from the election, so there is a possibility that Mahavikas Aghadi will get Muslim and Dalit votes. This may affect the Grand Alliance. The nationalist Sharad Pawar group had already sensed the yellow factor and has fielded only Maratha candidates on many seats.
Fighting to get reservation for Maratha community
Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil fought a big battle to get reservation for the Maratha community. After his movement, the government gave separate reservation to the Maratha community, but Jarange Patil remained adamant on his demand that we want reservation from OBCs only. But this demand of Jarange Patil was not accepted. After this, Manoj Jarange Patil had decided to contest the assembly elections.
It is believed that due to the yellow factor in the Lok Sabha elections, many veterans had to face defeat. Therefore, as soon as Jarange Patil announced that he was contesting the elections, many stalwarts started their meetings with him. After the election announcement, 5-time MLA Hasan Mushrif as well as his rival Samarjit Ghatge were among those who held a court in Jarange.
Sujay Vikhe Patil also met Jarange
Apart from this, BJP candidate Sujay Vikhe Patil, who lost from Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency, had also met Jarange Patil. Many big leaders like Industries Minister Uday Samant, Chief Minister’s OSD Mangesh Chivate, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Beed MP Bajrang Sonawane, Dhananjay Munde had met Manoj Jarange Patil. Many of these leaders wanted Manoj Jarange Patil to nominate them for the elections. However, now the situation has changed and Jarange has withdrawn from the elections. He has also said that he will not campaign for any party.