Vanchit Bahujan Awakening: Shift in Traditional Vote Base?

Various analysis attributed the loss of Congress-NCP candidates in nine seats due to traditional vote bank shift.

Various analysis attributed the loss of Congress-NCP candidates in nine seats to traditional vote bank shifting to VBA.

(Photo: The Quint)

The impressive performance of Vanchit Bahujan Agadhi (VBA), a political party floated in 2018 comprising of over 200 big and small social, anti-caste organisations under the leadership of Adv Prakash Ambedkar, in Maharashtra, brings out fault lines within the so-called secular political groups in Maharashtra.

It also demands an inquiry into the reasons for the massive support gained by VBA, which secured 14% of the vote share in the state and won the Aurangabad Constituency in alliance with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Such an impressive stint is politically being tarnished as an act of the ‘BJP’s B-team’ by Congress-NCP, which arguably has cost their alliance in nine constituencies – Beed, Buldhana, Gadhchilori-Chimur, Hatkanagale, Nanded, Parbhani, Sangli, Solapur, Yavatmal-Washim.

In these nine constituencies, the VBA candidates drew more votes than the losing margin of the candidates at number two spot, belonging to Congress-NCP.

Shift in Traditional Vote Base

Drawing plus one lakh votes in over 16 constituencies is also an indication of the decline of Bahujan Samaj Party’s overall vote share from the Dalit, Bahujan, Muslim, Tribal, OBCs and Balutedar quarters, who have been its traditional voters.

Similar dents have appeared in the Congress-NCP alliance vote share, where the majority of communities have changed their traditional voting patterns.

Various analysis have attributed the loss of Congress-NCP candidates in 9 seats due to the shift of such traditional vote bank to VBA.

This shift in traditional vote base can be articulated not merely as an outcome of a frustrated Dalit, Bahujan, Muslim, Tribal, OBCs, and Balutedars wanting a third alternative in the state. It is much more.

Ideological Alternative Provided by VBA?

Following are some fundamental indicators depicting change in the traditional voting patterns, on which BSP and Congress-NCP have overtly relied, and often taken for granted:

First, the ideological alternative provided by VBA seemed to have affected the voting pattern. Being focused on fighting pro-Hindutva forces, the ideology of VBA emphasises on annihilation of caste, is against Hindutva majoritarianism, and equally targets the tokenism extended by so-called secular liberal forces. It took prominence in the aftermath of violence and state’s backlash on Vanchit-Bahujans for celebrating 200 years of victory of British troops over Peshwa forces at Bhima Koregaon war memorial on 1 January 2018.

This alternative further openly confronted and challenged the severe change in social relations of upper caste Hindus with Muslims, Vanchit and Bahjuans alike, owing to the rise in Hindu majoritarianism, populism, authoritarianism, and nationalism.

Rise of these four isms saw the Bahujans, Muslims, Vanchits etc, being lynched in the name of cow protection, along with increase in murders with impunity due to caste despotism, and rise in overall violence and social ostracisation manifested in political, social and cultural spheres of life.

VBA further challenged the hegemonic position of Sangh Parivar, and continues to fight a social movement to make RSS accountable to the government, within the mandate of the Constitution. It further openly challenged the Hindutva ideology propagated by the RSS-BJP, as being anti-constitutional.

Therefore, according to Prakash Ambedkar, the strategy and agenda of VBA was centered around the oppressed and backward segments of the community, who are fighting violence and rampant discrimination by such forces in the state.

‘Anti-Caste, Anti-Hindutva Social Movement’

Second, the ideological alternative was not merely kept as a formal opposition, but the true political success of VBA is reflected from a strong anti-caste, anti-Hindutva social movement that VBA fought and continues to fight on the ground in Maharashtra.

The calls for Bharat bandh and strong resistance to violence at Bhima-Koregaon, along with numerous demonstrations on caste-based atrocities and violence are some examples of such social resistance.

Being foremost a social movement of oppressed Bahujan classes and Muslims against the upper-caste Hindutva forces, VBA did not mobilise these communities merely on their caste, religious and oppressed status.

It tapped into the social unrest among these communities and cumulated it in form of a united ideological opposition.

Being much more than a Dalit-Bahujan-Muslim alliance, VBA rose as an instrument to voice the anti-caste and anti-Hindutva sentiment of these communities, later developing its own united ideology.

By embracing the agenda of the oppressed and Bahujans, the social movement was turned into a political party, to politically reject the pro-Hindutva ideology, hegemony, and appropriation by hardline Hindutva forces, and equally the upper-caste so-called liberal political parties.

This also is the primary reason for the success of VBA candidates in terms of gaining significant voting percentage – tapping not on the caste identity of these communities, but their anti-caste and anti-Hindutva objectives and agendas.

‘Discontent With Failure of Upper-Caste Leadership’

Third, the rise of VBA can also be construed from the discontent of these communities with the failure of the upper-caste so-called liberal leadership of Congress-NCP in the state in providing real space and representation to the communities.

The continuous marginalisation of the core concerns of these groups by the so-called secular parties, where Congress-NCP continues to treat the political and social concerns of Dalit, Bahujan, Muslim, Tribal, OBCs, and Balutedars as ornamental, paved way for the communities to channel the distress suffered at the hand of upper castes through a political alternative.

Roots also lie in the distorted and destroyed political leadership of Republican Party of India (and its various fractions), BSP and other Ambedkarite parties with anti-caste agenda in Maharashtra. Having a history of the strong anti-caste movement, Maharashtra has seen a strong presence of Republican Party of India on its political landscape.

Being led by firebrand Dalit orators and intellectuals, it saw its decline due to division of the party into numerous fractions led by these very Dalit leaders, and was later reduced to insignificance. Much of this dismayed and fractured position of the party established by Dr BR Ambedkar is attributed to the NCP-Congress and Shiv-Sena leadership in the state.

VBA’s attempt transcends bounds of Dalit political representation by uniting OBCs, Muslims, Balutedars and a significant number of Bahujans outside Dalit fold on a common agenda and ideology. It has therefore found larger acceptability among these communities, outside the classical demand of Dalit-Muslim unity.

It’s also true that so-called secular parties have often taken for granted and very much neglected the significance of the combined power of Vanchits, Bahujans and Muslims in the state, who traditionally have been their loyal vote bank.

Through VBA, which gives prominence to their narratives and struggles, the Vanchit, Bahujans, and Muslims have voiced their opposition to the contours of the hegemony of pro-Hindutva forces on state power. It is also a rejection of the leadership of the upper-caste so-called liberals, who have claimed to speak for the communities on the margin without empowering them, or sufficiently representing their demands in political space.

Thus, the discontent among the communities is not only with the pro-Hindutva forces but also with ‘soft Hindutva’ parties, as put forth by Prakash Ambedkar, which under the guise of liberal and secular politics, are hegemonised by upper-caste liberal politicians.

The State legislative assembly elections are due in September 2019 in Maharashtra. The question lies ahead as to how opposition to the ruling pro-majoritarian BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state must be created. The imperativeness of such political opposition is due to its urgent need to tackle the Sangh Parivar-led Hindutva forces and expand the impact of existing VBA social movement.

Although, the liberal secular political parties may not have a thumping interest in the anti-caste, anti-Hindutva agenda of VBA – Congress-NCP, for staying politically relevant, can no longer neglect the political and social prominence of VBA in the state, which as an alternative for the two largest political groups has eliminated the monopoly of such groups in the state.

However, before contemplating such a pre-poll alliance, there lies an important caveat. VBA must not fall prey to the same destructive politics of the two largest political blocs which resulted in fragmentation and, later, fall of the Republican party of India in Maharashtra.

The failure in pre-poll alliance of VBA and Congress-NCP is a positive indication for VBA and overall Bahujan-Muslim politics in Maharashtra. It is indicative of the reorientation in the approach of an anti-caste, pro-Bahujan and minority front. One that seeks radical reform.

It is clear that no longer can the two largest political groups appropriate Vanchit Bahujan voice, nor can they by sheer tokenism and empowerment of some selective co-opted leaders claim to address the concerns of these communities.

This radical change indicates a shift of these communities from being compliant to the power structures of the two power blocs, to becoming an alternate political power led by Vanchit, Bahujans and Muslims contesting monopoly of that very political power which stands hegemonised by upper-caste Hindus.

*Seat won by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate, who were in alliance with VBA

(Asang Wankhede is a Felix Scholar, LLM Candidate, Human Rights, Conflict and Justice at SOAS, University of London. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)