Thread by @a_sandhan

#Maharashtrapolitics
👉Is there a Maratha votebank
👉Does Maratha card of Sharad Pawar works
👉Is Sharad Pawar really such strong
Repeatedly asked questions, will try to answer in detail

👉First lets see the region wise distribution of assembly seats for better understanding
👉Mumbai Thane Konkan (MTK) 75 seats
Vidharbha 62 seats
North Maharashtra (NM) 35 seats
Western Maharashtra 70 seats
Marathwada 46 seats
Total 288 seats

👉Out of 288 seats, 137 seats are in Mumbai, Thane Konkan n Vidharbha area
👉Maratha is never an issue in these 137 seats.
Sharad Pawar has absolutely no ground in these areas
👉Some strong candidates win some seats occasionally for them, people hate his politics

👉In 2014, 2019 NCP won 1 n 6 seats respectively out of 62 seats in Vidharbha
👉In MTK region NCP won 8 n 6 seats out of 75 in 2014, 2019
👉In NM region, Dhule Nandurbar 9 seats, Jalgaon 11 seats, Nashik 15 seats NCP has good presence in only 12-14 seats

👉In 2014/2019 NCP won 5/7 seats mainly from Nashik district
👉This region has atleast 9-10 seats where tribal votes decide the outcome

👉Marathwada means area of Maratha's has 46 seats. NCP has won 8 seats both in 2014, 2019.
They have limited presence in few seats in couple of districts
👉Western Maharashtra the sugar belt has 70 seats.
NCP controls the strong cooperative network. In every constituency we will

see presence of couple of strong co-operative leaders
👉Each such co-operative leaders have 20-30K votes in his pocket
👉Due to funding n other issues they were with NCP, congress
👉Majority of leaders r from Maratha community, but the election battle is mainly extension of

co-operative network politics
👉Despite NCP, Congress hold BJP SS always took good no of seats from this region on Hindutva
👉With both opponents being sugar baron, caste is generally sidelined expect their where fight between 2 dominant caste exists, not anti Brahminism.

👉Western Maharashtra is the most developed area in the state due to huge investment at the cost of other areas
👉Truth is there is huge resentment in other areas of the state due to neglect n backlog

👉People in Marathwada(46 seats), NM (35seats), Vidharbha (62 seats) have no love for Maratha leaders from Western Maharashtra
👉Very few marriage between Maratha's of these 3 regions n Western Maharashtra due to huge income disparity

👉People from these 3 region were starved of irrigation water due to pathetic politics of congress/NCP
👉First SS BJP govt came to power due to tapping the grievance of people from these 3 regions, plus solid backing on Hindutva from MTK region

👉To cut these opposition Sharad Pawar started playing Maratha caste politics in rest of Maharashtra
👉He enjoyed some success in some seats of Marathwada as seating SS MLA's were doing nothing for development
👉But it didn't last long with fielding of strong candidate by BJP SS

in next election
👉Even in Western Maharashtra there is big resentment against him due to disparity in water sharing. Sharad Pawar is accused of diverting other districts water share to his Baramati constituency

👉Forget one thing, Pawar who has tremendous hold over media likes to call himself Maratha strongman
👉He thinks being called Maratha strongman by his puppet media will wash away the charges of discrimination

👉He routinely raise anti Brahmin issues, his media always try to incite Maratha's against Brahmin rule (Peshwai)
👉But it is blunted on battle ground due to strong Maratha candidates of both BJP SS

👉During 2014 election voters of state knew BJP doesn't have big Maratha leader for CM post
👉They knew after the sad departure of Gopinath Munde (OBC), the top two leaders r Brahmin, still they voted BJP n repeated it in 2019

👉In couple of LS elections supporters, media of Sharad Pawar projected him as PM face due to possibility of hung verdict
👉They tried to emotionally appeal the voters, mostly Maratha's, but the voters preferred Hindutva over caste

👉Marathwada the biggest concentration of Maratha's was always a SS BJP bastion, actually complete domination didn't happened as they failed to make inroads in Latur Nanded district were non Maratha's have good dominance

👉This is the overall picture of Maharashtra, SP's Maratha card doesn't work more than 20-25 seats
👉Maratha's doesn't vote like dominant caste in other states
👉Lot of strong Maratha leaders in last 5 yrs have joined BJP trusting the leadership of Brahmin Fadnavis

👉Actually today there is lot of resentment in Maratha's with Modi/Shah for not favouring a man of caliber Fadnavis for CM post
👉In short Sharad Pawar is a highly overrated leader due to media friends n whose power is due to hold over co-operative movement

👉Fadnavis started to break that control, so lot of protests were unleahed in state
👉Now Centre has also started steps to loosen Pawar's control over co-operative sector
👉Once it happens, self made leaders with him will start deserting. That will be end of NCP, congress

👉One ex of twists by Pawar's media friends. They say Pawar got good seats (jump from 42 to 55) due to speech in rain at Satara
👉They hide that Satara district which is the oldest bastion giving 7-8/8 seats, they lost 4 seats for first time

👉Anti Brahminism have no political value in state, yes some sloganeering for supporters
👉Last, Maharashtra is the most favourable ground for Hindutva
👉There is no muslim hotel in commercial, Hindu areas, they know Hindus will never eat there.
Priorities of people r very clear