The Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party government was not serious on granting reservation to the Dhangar (shepherd) community and was merely stalling for time, said senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan here on Tuesday.
At the same time, Mr. Chavan alleged the BJP government was not interested in granting reservation to either the Maratha or the Muslim communities, despite fervent promises to the former.
“The BJP have managed to quiet its smaller ally, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) by giving its leader, Mahadev Jankar a seat in the Legislative Council. So, the issue of Dhangar reservation will likely be put on the backburner again,” said the former Chief Minister, commenting that the BJP was clearly flip-flopping on the issue.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference here, Mr. Chavan cited corruption within his party and the consequent voter disconnect it caused, especially among the youth, as chief causes for the Congress’ rout in the 2014 Parliamentary and State Assembly polls.
However, he didn’t credit BJP for its victory in Maharashtra. He suspected some other political force was behind it.
The traditional 15-year-old alliance between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had crumbled before the Assembly elections ostensibly on the issue of seat sharing, with Mr. Chavan and other Congress leaders accusing Sharad Pawar’s NCP of being in cahoots with the BJP.
Mr. Chavan’s statements have not gone down well with Jankar, a prominent leader of the Dhangar community, who retorted stating that the Congress, which was “in a comatose state” after its electoral defeat, need not worry about the reservation of the Dhangar community.
“We have full faith in Mr. Fadnavis’ assurances on the matter and stand by the BJP. We do not need Mr. Chavan to worry for us,” said Mr. Jankar, speaking to The Hindu.
