Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Manoj Jarange Patil, the leader of the Maratha reservation movement, had publicly called for defeating candidates opposing Maratha reservation. Hence this had an adverse impact on the Mahayuti (Alliance of BJP, NCP and others) candidates in all seven constituencies of Marathwada. Notably, this happened because there were no AIMIM candidates in these constituencies. As a result, the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates received votes from both the Maratha and Muslim communities. On other hand, in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha Constituency, the AIMIM candidate was in fray, hence the unified votes from the Maratha and OBC communities went to Sandipan Bhumare, indicating that the Jarange factor had a positive impact here.
Except for the Aurangabad Constituency, it is clear from the election results that the Maratha community voted for the MVA candidates in the remaining seven constituencies - Nanded, Jalna, Parbhani, Latur, Hingoli, Beed, and Osmanabad (Dharashiv). There were no AIMIM candidates in these constituencies. As a result, the MVA succeeded in consolidating Muslim votes, and the combined votes of the Muslim and Maratha communities benefited it. On the other hand, the scenario in the Aurangabad Constituency was slightly different. AIMIM's Imtiaz Jaleel, who won the election in 2019, was a contender. As in the previous election, the Muslim community, known as the 'vote bank' of the MVA constituents Congress and NCP, voted for Jaleel. The Maratha and OBC communities were aware that the Muslim community would not vote for the MVA candidate Chandrakant Khaire. Therefore, they avoided voting for Khaire. In this election, just as in the previous one, the Maratha community turned away from Khaire and instead solidly supported Bhumare, considering him better due to their same caste. Additionally, the OBC community also voted for Bhumare, hoping for Modi to become Prime Minister again, which is believed to have secured Bhumare's ticket to Delhi.
Box
NCP City President, Abhijeet Deshmukh said, “ In Marathwada, only the Aurangabad constituency had an AIMIM candidate, so the MVA did not receive Muslim votes here. The OBC and Maratha communities collectively voted for Bhumare. He never took an anti-reservation stance, so the Jarange factor positively benefited the Mahayuti candidate. The scenario in the other seven constituencies in Marathwada was the opposite, resulting in success for the MVA there.”
The Coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha, Prof. Chandrakant Bharat said, “ Manoj Jarange Patil had publicly called for defeating candidates who opposed reservation. Following this, OBC leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Prakash Shendge, and Mahadev Jankar directly called for defeating Maratha candidates. As a result, even though the Maratha community was not inclined to do so, they voted against the Mahayuti candidates, benefiting the MVA. In the local constituency, the MVA candidate acted with hostility towards the Marathas, prompting the community to vote for Bhumare as a Maratha candidate instead of Khaire.”