BJP fends off 'statute change' charge in some Maharashtra seats after Hegde's comment
Congress' campaign trail. BJP is also smarting under the remarks made by its Karnataka leader Anantkumar Hegde, who in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls said that BJP would need a two-thirds majority to change the Constitution. This has turned into a convenient weapon in the Maharashtra Opposition parties' arsenal as they have successfully spun out a narrative that if BJP comes to power, it would remove reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs. BJP has got vibes from the ground that there is a consolidation of Scheduled Caste community votes against BJP in the state.
BJP has tried to counter this charge with the PM repeatedly alleging 'Congress injustice' on SCs, STs and OBCs and pointing to Karnataka's reservation for Muslims under the OBC quota.
BJP's repeated emphasis on SCs, STs and OBCs comes as it senses that poll arithmetic in Maharashtra has changed considerably since the 2019 parliamentary polls. This time it looks like the Dalits and Muslims seem to be backing Congress-Sena-NCP (SP) alliance in the state.
For instance, in Solapur, Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi had put up Rahul Gaikwad against Praniti Shinde of Congress and BJP's Ram Satpute. This could have posed problems to Shinde as the constituency has a large number of Dalit voters. In the 2019 polls, Ambedkar had contested as a VBA candidate and had got nearly 1.7 lakh votes, leading to the defeat of Praniti's father Sushil Kumar Shinde as Dalit votes got divided between Shinde and Ambedkar. This time, Gaikwad withdrew his candidature
