Beed Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Uphill Battle for BJP’s Pankaja Munde Amid Maratha vs OBC Tussle

Beed Lok Sabha constituency is one of 48 parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra. This is a General category seat and comprises entire Beed district. Six Assembly segments fall under the Beed Lok Sabha seat. Of these, the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP currently holds three (Majalgaon, Ashti and Parli) and the Sharad Pawar faction holds the Beed Assembly seat. The BJP holds two (Georai and Kaij-SC). The constituency, located in central Maharashtra, will vote in the fourth phase of general elections on May 13, 2024.

Sitting MP – Pritam Munde

Candidates – Pankaja Munde (BJP), Bajrang Sonawane (NCP-SP)

Political Dynamics

• In the backdrop of the Maratha quota agitation, the Lok Sabha elections this time have been pitted as a political tussle between the Maratha and OBC communities.
• Candidate selection for the Beed seat was a carefully thought-out process for both main contenders — the BJP, which is contesting in the ruling Mahayuti with the Shiv Sena-led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, as well as the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), which is part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alongside the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
• BJP: For the Beed Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has named former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde as its candidate, instead of her sister Pritam Gopinath Rao Munde who has been holding the seat for the last two terms.
• In 2019, Pankaja Munde was defeated in the Parli Assembly seat by her then estranged cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde.
• This time, however, she can count on her cousin’s support since both of them are on the same side. Dhananjay Munde is now with the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP which rebelled against Sharad Pawar. Dhananjay is serving as a state minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government.
• On behalf of Pankaja, Dhananjay has pitched the election to voters as one for a Beed-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express.
• Munde Family Influence: The Beed seat has been synonymous with the Munde family since 2009 when Gopinath Munde defeated NCP’s Ramesh Adaska.
• Gopinath Munde had won the parliamentary constituency in 2014 as well. However, his death the same year led to his younger daughter Pritam Munde contesting and winning the by poll.
• Pritam Munde had retained the seat in the 2019 elections. With Pankaja’s candidature now, the BJP has given the Beed ticket to the third member of the same family.
• Presenting a united front in the 2024 elections despite the ticket switch, the Munde sisters say their top priority is now to win the seat.
• Winning the seat on the basis of the Munde legacy alone, however, will be a tough task this time with the Maratha quota agitation heavily influencing the elections and because of the reported anti-incumbency after 15 years of the family rule.
• Slogans were reportedly raised against Munde during campaigning in some villages, including Pavandham, Lavul, Kharat Aadgaon and Sakshalpimpari, over the Maratha quota row.
• NCP-(Sharadchandra Pawar): The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP fielded Bajrang Sonawane from Beed barely weeks after the leader jumped ship from the Ajit Pawar faction of the party.
• Sonawane had contested unsuccessfully against BJP’s Pritam Munde, the sister of current candidate Pankaja Munde, from Beed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
• In big boost to Sonawane’s campaign, former Maharashtra minister Suresh Navale resigned from the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde this week and announced support to the NCP-SP’s Beed candidate. Navale hails from Beed.
• The last time NCP won the Beed Lok Sabha seat was in 2004 general elections.
• Maratha-OBC Tussle: In the backdrop of the Maratha quota agitation, the general elections in Beed this time are being seen as a political battle between the Maratha and OBC voters, two most dominant communities in the constituency.
• Led by activist Manoj Jarange, the Maratha community across the Marathwada region, including Beed, has been has been insisting on quota for the Marathas under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
• The OBCs, led by leaders like Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, say they are not opposed to Marathas getting reservation but are against “backdoor entry” of the Maratha community into the OBC quota.
• Given the composition of Beed’s population, the issue took a violent turn last year when large-scale arson and vandalism was reported in the district in October-November.
• Beed had emerged as the epicentre of the quota agitation and a curfew had to be imposed after two MLAs and a former state minister faced the ire of pro-quota protesters.
• Beed police had registered more than 30 offences and arrested 99 people, with Jarenge alleging that Marathas who had nothing to do with the violence were being targeted.
• Political observers say the cases filed against Jarange and other Maratha protesters coupled with the standoff on including Marathas in OBC reservations will weigh heavily in the minds of voters this election.
• Jarange Factor: According to sources on the ground, there is resentment against the ruling alliance over the Maratha quota agitation.
• Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange may have officially declared that he is staying away from the Lok Sabha poll fray – he hasn’t endorsed or campaigned against any candidate — but continues to criticise the BJP-Eknath Shinde-Ajit Pawar Mahayuti.
• “I am not contesting the election this time, but the (Maratha) community knows who will win and lose,” Jarange had said cryptically.
• He has appealed to the Maratha community members to come out in large numbers to vote in the Lok Sabha polls.
• “The community must unite and vote with conviction. Defeat them with such force that they fear the Maratha vote. Defeating the candidates is a victory in itself,” he said, but did not specify whether he was referring to candidates of the ruling side or the opposition.
• He recently lashed out at Maharashtra deputy chief minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis and lamented that the police continue to register cases against Maratha quota agitators for the November incidents.
• In further repercussions for Maharashtra politics, Jarange has declared that the Maratha community members might contest the state assembly elections if they are not provided reservation in the form demanded till June 6.
• He has threated to launch another hunger strike from June 5, a day after Lok Sabha results are announced, if the Maharashtra government fails to give the community reservation benefits.
• Number Crunch: Marathas account for 7.5 lakh voters in the Beed Lok Sabha constituency, forming the biggest voting bloc.
• According to political observers, the Maratha community may side with the NCP-SP candidate this time though the party has not announced any support to Jarange’s demands.
• But its candidate, Bajrang Sonawane, is a Maratha himself and this factor could be enough to bring the community onboard.
• Next come the OBCs at 6 lakh to 6.5 lakh voters. The BJP’s decision to field Pankaja Munde from Beed is a calculated move to consolidate the OBC voters. Pankaja, who has a following among her Vanjari community, is being looked at as an emerging OBC leader.
• The BJP hopes Pankaja Munde can mobilise support from the OBC community not just in Beed, but also in seven other Lok Sabha seats in the Marathwada region.
• On the Maratha and OBC quota row, Pankaja Munde has maintained that the government should provide reservations to the Maratha community “that stands legal scrutiny”.
• As per local reporters, Muslim voters (around 3.5 lakh) may play a crucial role in deciding the outcome.
• In previous elections, the Muslim community in Beed has supported the Munde family candidates but with polarisation reaching fever pitch in these elections, they may side with the Sharad Pawar-Congress-Uddhav Thackeray alliance.
• Jain, Marwari, Brahmin and other communities add up to around 2 lakh.
• VBA a Non-Factor: Unlike other seats in Maharashtra, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is a non-factor in Beed.
• The party has fielded a Kunbi-Maratha candidate in Ashok Hinge-Patil to dent the vote bank of both Munde and Sonawane, but neither Marathas nor OBCs in Beed are likely to break ranks.

Key Constituency Issues

• Maratha Quota: The Maratha reservation demand has dominated Maharashtra’s political landscape since the Supreme Court struck down the 2018 Act of the state which provided quota in education and jobs to the Maratha community.
• Activist Manoj Jarange is demanding that the entire Maratha community should be given quota in the OBC category by identifying them as Kunbi. Kunbis, an agrarian community, fall in the OBC category.
• But Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior minister from the NCP and prominent OBC leader, opposed the demand, stating that Marathas should not get a share in the OBC quota.
• Bhujbal took a defiant stand even though the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government was sympathetic to the quota demand. It set up the Sandeep Shinde committee to examine pre-1967 Kunbi records.
• Jarange has maintained that Marathas and Kunbis are socially and culturally very close.
• The government subsequently enacted a fresh legislation providing 10% quota to Marathas. But some Maratha organisations claimed that it would not stand judicial scrutiny, and the overall quota in the state now exceeds 50%.
• Drought: Analysis of data between 1986 and 2022 shows there has been an average annual decrease in rainfall of about 2.31 mm per year in Beed, part of the perennially water-starved Marathwada, with droughts becoming more frequent and more severe.
• The Marathwada region, which sees erratic rainfall, comprises eight districts – Beed, Hingoli, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani.
• In October last year, 87 tankers were deployed by the government to supply water to 86 villages in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna and Beed districts. But now the authorities are deploying 188 such tankers in the three districts.
• According to a report from the divisional commissioner’s office, the number of villages that were dependent on tankers for water supply was 86 on October 9, 2023. But the number of tanker-dependent villages has gone up to 193 by January 16, 2024.
• In Beed, one village and three small settlements are depending on one tanker, the report says.
• Migration: With no facilities to pursue higher education or industries set up to offer jobs, youth from Beed district have been consistently migrating to metro cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru for work.
• There is mass migration among farm workers and labourers in the agriculture sector too. Village records and a survey by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) suggests a notable shift in such migration patterns, with 55.67% having started migrating in the last decade, up from 5.42% three decades ago.
• This trend correlates with the increasing frequency and severity of drought conditions aggravated by climate change.
• Exploitation of Farm Workers: Most of the farm workers who migrate work in the sugar industry. The majority of those migrating for work cut sugarcane during the harvest season.
• Local labour contractors — known as “mukkadams” — typically hire husband-and-wife teams or “jodis” to work in pairs, not through formal contracts but informal agreements.
• A typical day for these labourers involves shifts ranging from 12 to 16 hours, throughout the six-month harvest period. Men usually cut the cane while the women tie and stack bundles.
• They are often subjected to wage deductions for work missed, creating a fear of taking any leave.
• Field Workers Forced to Get Hysterectomies: In the semi-arid lands of Beed district, scores of women have been forced to endure hysterectomies or risk losing their livelihoods.
• Climate-induced droughts have ravaged the region, pushing families into poverty and forcing women to migrate in search of work in sugarcane fields.
• The demanding nature of this physical labour, coupled with exploitative employment conditions, forces women to get their uterus surgically removed to avoid missing work and incurring financial penalties, according to a new paper from the IIED.
• There have been reports of the women, who work as cane cutters, delivering babies in sugarcane fields since they are scared of taking maternity leaves because of “khada (leave)” charges.
• The procedure, performed mostly in private clinics, leave many such women with lasting pain and mental health problems.
• Sugar Factory Shutdown: A cooperative sugar mill controlled by the family of Pankaja Munde has been shut since 2019 over dues worth Rs 203.69 crore. State-owned Union Bank of India had even put out a notice for the e-auction of the sugar mill in January this year.
• This has become a point of discomfort for Munde during campaigning with locals asking when the mill will resume functioning to mitigate some of the unemployment in the district.
• In contrast, her rival Sonwane owns sugar mills that are up and running and recently claimed to also employ people from Munde’s Vanjari community.

Voter Demographics

Social composition

SC — 13.61%

ST — 1.3%

Religious composition

Buddhist — 2.65%

Christian — 0.08%

Jain — 0.34%

Muslim — 12.39%

Sikh — 0.03%

Literacy rate

66.48%

Major Infra Projects in Beed

• Greenfield Transmission Project: India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) announced in April 2024 that it has operationalized its first greenfield project, Kallam Transmission Limited (KTL), in Beed.
• The project was won by IndiGrid in December 2021 through a Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) process and will be developed on a build-own-operate-maintain (BOOM) basis for 35 years.
• The project will evacuate 1 GW of power from renewable energy projects in the state’s Dharashiv area.
• IndiGrid is India’s first and largest listed power sector infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) and owns 37 power projects, consisting of 46 transmission lines with more than 8,468 kms length.
• Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath Railway Line: This is a 261.25km broad gauge railway line project in Maharashtra, a joint venture between the Government of India and the Maharashtra Government, with each party sharing 50% of the costs.
• The project is intended to improve connectivity for residents of the Ahmednagar-Parli belt and nearby areas.
• As of November 2023, 66.18km of the line has been commissioned, and the project is 78% complete.
• Land acquisition for the project is also 99% complete, with 1,821.56 out of 1,806.19 hectares secured.
• Parli Vaijnath is a city and municipal council in the Beed district. It is the second largest city in the district by population and size, and is the headquarters of the Parli taluka.
• Surat-Chennai NH Via Beed: The Surat-Chennai Expressway, a six-lane, partially access-controlled highway, will pass through 38km of Beed district. The expressway will connect Surat in Gujarat to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, passing through six states and districts.
• The expressway will be built at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore and is expected to be completed by December 2026.
• Nagpur-Goa Expressway: The Nagpur-Goa Expressway, also known as the Shaktipeeth Expressway, will pass through Beed.
• The 761km, six-lane expressway will connect 11 districts, including Wardha, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Latur, Beed, Osmanabad, Solapur, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg, and Patradevi (North Goa).
• The expressway is expected to be completed in 2028–29 and will reduce travel time from 21 hours to 8 hours.

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