MES candidate Mahadev Patil for this elections, who operates a small canteen at Nath Pai circle in Shahapur in the Vadagavi region, said that the organisation is contesting the elections to protest the Centre’s neglect in providing justice to Marathis residing in border areas of Karnataka by integrating them into Maharashtra. He also criticised Karnataka for forcibly implementing the Kannada language on them, stating, “The contest is our protest; we would not have contested if the injustice was resolved and the Kannada language was not imposed.”
“Apart from the border issue, we are addressing education, employment, civic requirements, and farmers’ issues in our manifesto,” he added.
Though the party has never secured a seat in the Lok Sabha elections, the MES is once again testing its fortunes, buoyed by the votes it garnered in the last assembly elections in the Belagavi South and Rural segments.
Patil expressed regret for the organisation’s decision not to contest in the two elections before the 2020 by-polls, which weakened the organisation and led the new voters to choose other options. “I know I will not win, but contesting to protect our community’s votes is essential, focusing on education, employment, and farmer issues as an unwritten manifesto,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Patil expressed regret for the organisation’s decision not to contest in the two elections before the 2020 by-polls, which weakened the organisation and led the new voters to choose other options. “I know I will not win, but contesting to protect our community’s votes is essential, focusing on education, employment, and farmer issues as an unwritten manifesto,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}In the 2021 bypolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had suffered a severe blow as it was able to win by only 5,000 votes, bolstering the strength of the Congress. MES-supported candidate Shubham Shelke had received approximately 1.20 lakh (120,000) votes.
MES spokesman Vikas Kalghatagi said: “We received more than 10,000 votes in the 2023 bypolls compared to the 2018 elections, which encouraged us to contest this year’s polls.” He further said that contesting this year’s Lok Sabha elections was crucial for the organisation to keep its voters united and prevent them from being divided among other parties.
Founded in 1951, the MES was built around the agenda of merging all Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka with Maharashtra. In the 2023 by-elections, it contested six seats in the district – Belagavi South, Belagavi North, Belagavi Rural, Khanapur, Nipani and Yamkanmardi assembly constituencies - compared to only five seats in 2018.
BJP corporator Hanumanth Kongali said that the party did not take the by-elections seriously as it had assumed its results would not impact the government. “However, we never expected the victory margin to be reduced to that level,” said Kongali, who is also the party’s media coordinator, while acknowledging the need for corrective measures.
Marathas have traditionally strongly backed the BJP, except in the by-elections, where some sided with the MES before returning to the party dedicated to protecting the nation’s interests, according to Kongali. He added, “The politically irrelevant MES contest won’t impact our party.”
Responding to MES’s role in aiding the Congress in the last bypoll, Vinay Navalgatti, district president of Congress, said most Marathis who supported BJP in 2009, 2014 and 2019 general elections, turned against it in 2021 by-elections, getting about 1.20 lakh (120,000) votes which reduced the BJP’s victory margin to 5,000 from 3.5 lakh (350,000) in 2019 elections.
“Marathis voted against the BJP for its poor governance, which greatly damaged the BJP in the last by-polls,” he said while expressing confidence in the party’s victory by a margin of more than a lakh votes.
Political expert Ashok Chandaragi pointed out that the MES did not contest in elections before the 2021 bypolls for various reasons. With approximately 4.5 lakh votes, MES’s contest would definitely impact both the BJP and Congress, as evidenced in the last bypolls. He said, “Compared to the Congress, the MES’s contest affects the BJP more. The votes received by the MES candidate are also considered votes reduced for the BJP and added to the Congress.”