Mumbai: To drive home their accusation that Maharashtra's political scene is dominated by one caste, the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA), the third-biggest group contesting the state assembly elections has displayed the caste of its candidates in public, the only party to do so.
The VBA, led by Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of the architect of the Indian Constitution and the founder of the Republican Party of India, is contesting 199 of the 288 seats in the state assembly. The party has fielded candidates in 23 of the 36 seats in Mumbai.
The list of candidates includes Buddhists, Muslims, Malhar Kolis, Jain, Maratha, Kunbi, Agri Kolis, among other groups. Siddharth Mokle, spokesperson for VBA, said that announcing the caste and religion of the candidate was deliberate.
"Marathas lead both the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Mahayuti. Only Uddhav Thackeray, a Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu, and Devendra Fadnavis, a Brahmin, are non-Marathas. Of the 48 Members of Parliament from the state, 33 are Marathas. People should know that other castes are not getting representation. We have announced the caste of our candidates because the state's politics is dominated by one caste and a few families like the Pawars," said Mokle.
Satish Rajguru, the VBA candidate from Anushakti Nagar, said many social groups in the state have never been represented in electoral politics. "Therefore our party leader said we should mention the candidate's caste to the voters. Shinde, UBT, and others have given seats to castes that are already established and have been in leadership positions for generations," said Rajguru who is mentioned as a 'Buddhist/Mahar' in the party list. The VBA did not win any seat in the 2019 elections but its candidate came second in 13 seats.
The VBA is also the only party to promise the implementation of the Mohammad Paigambar law to prosecute defamation of religious figures. This comes after widespread protests in the state against Hindu religious leader Ramgiri Maharaj and BJP leader Nitesh Rane for their statements about Prophet Muhammad. VBA said they had proposed the law when Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister in the MVA government in 2019.
"Current laws are inadequate to prevent the defamation of religious figures, otherwise those who made comments against Prophet Muhammad would have been in jail. People continue to insult religious figures because they know that the existing laws have no teeth," said Mokle.
The bill proposes offences to be non-bailable with a minimum punishment of five years. Mokle said that though the bill is named after Prophet Mohammad, it will cover defamation of all religious figures. "We call the bill Mohammad Paigambar law because he was the favourite target of such remarks."
