Dhangar leader Mahadev Jankar exits Mahayuti, to go solo in assembly elections

Mumbai: In a big jolt to the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti alliance ahead of the Assembly polls, Dhangar leader and Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) founder-president Mahadev Jankar on Wednesday exited the alliance and announced that he would contest the elections alone.
Jankar, who fought the Lok Sabha elections from Parbhani as a Mahayuti candidate said, “My party demanded over 40 assembly seats in seat sharing from Mahayuti leaders. But they refused our demand. So I have left the Mahayuti alliance and will now fight assembly elections on our own. We will contest maximum seats,” said Jankar.
He further added that there is unrest in the Dhangar community over the issue of reservation from the Scheduled Tribes category and still there was no decision on the inclusion of the Dhangar community in STs.
The Dhangars are a community of shepherds with populations in several states. Besides Maharashtra, they live in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, as well.
The population of the Dhangar community in Maharashtra as per 2011 census was around 1.08 crore and it has significant presence in western Maharashtra and Marathwada in districts like Solapur, Satara, Kolhapur, Sangli, Pune, Ahmednagar, Dharashiv, Beed, Parbhani etc. The community could play an important role in around 35 constituencies in assembly elections. As such, Jankar’s party may divide the anti-government Dhangar votes and could affect the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
On the other hand, some of Jankar’s colleagues like Rajabhau Phad quit the party and joined NCP (SP) led by veteran leader Sharad Pawar. Other leaders from the Dhangar community like Uttamrao Jankar and Bhushansinha Raje Holkar also now with Sharad Pawar. So it would be important to see if Mahadev Jankar gets expected support from the community in the coming assembly elections.
“There is incredible resentment amongst the Dhangar community and BJP has used them only as a vote bank,” said NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande.