Panaji: The upcoming assembly elections 2022 to be held in 5 states in the country in a few weeks seem to have a dominant shadow of caste politics hovering over them. Though the issue seems to be acute in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in a small state like Goa, caste politics usually takes a backseat.
However this year, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal spotted Amit Palekar's potential of influencing the OBC votes in the state in 18 constituencies out of a total of 40 constituencies, since he belongs to the Bhandari community that belongs to the OBC minority. This is being speculated as the reason for Kejriwal to have chosen Palekar as the Chief Minister's face, thus laying out a newly formed ground for caste politics in Goa.
The Bhandari community is predominant in these constituencies
The Bhandari community is predominant in several constituencies in Goa including the Mandre, Shiroda, Shivoli, Ponda, Salegaon, Marmugova, Dabholi, Mhapsa, Talegaon, Maye, Vapai, Kandkor, Madkai, Sanger, Kuthali, Pedne, Savard, and Kurchade constituencies. If the candidates of the Bhandari community win from these constituencies, an easy way towards the Chief Minister's seat shall be easily paved for Palekar, thus putting the AAP at advantage in the state.
Party dynamics and the Bhandari community
Although AAP announced Amit Palekar as the Chief Ministerial candidate from Goa, Ashok Naik - the leader of the Bhandari community - has said that Kejriwal has hurt the sentiments of the Bhandari community by fielding candidates from the Bhandari community in only 4 out of the 18 dominant constituencies. The candidates who got the seats from these four constituencies include Babu Nanuskar from Dabholi constituency, Amit Palekar from Talegaon constituency, Rajesh Kalangutkar from Maye constituency, and Satyavijay Naik from the Vapai constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party, on the other hand, has also taken advantage of the caste dynamics in the state and fielded candidates from the Bhandari community in 6 constituencies. These include Mandre, Shiroli, Salegaon, Ponda, Shiroda, and Marmugova constituencies. Meanwhile, Congress also fielded candidates from the Bhandari community in the three constituencies including Kandkor, Madkai, and Mhapsa.
OBC significant among total voters
Looking at the statistics, Goa has the highest number of Hindu voters, with a 65% Hindu population. This is followed by Christian voters at 30 percent, while the number of Muslim voters in the state is very low, at 2.81 percent. The population of the remaining religions combined is 2.19 percent. However, the Hindu voters include a total of 19 different castes, wherein the OBC community takes up a major share of up to 30 to 40 percent. In these, approximately 40 percent of the OBC voters, the Bhandari community is fairly dominant in Goa. It's this dominance that has led the political parties to do their arithmetic and chalk out some propaganda based on caste politics in the state.
No recent CM from the Bhandari community, despite the dominance
Although the Bhandari community has the highest number of voters in the state, none of the MLAs from the community has gotten a chance to serve as the Chief Minister in the recent past. Ravi Naik was the only candidate from the Bhandari community to have served as the Chief Minister; that too, 28 years back, as confirmed by senior journalist Kishor Naik Gavkar. "Despite having a visible dominance in the state, the Bhandari community does not get much representation. Caste politics hasn't been prevalent in Goa and maybe that is the reason that neither the community nor the politicians in the state are looking at this caste dynamic very seriously," says Naik.
Another senior journalist Gurudas Sawal also said that this shall be the first time that the elections in the state will be held on the basis of ethnic arithmetics and the Bhandari community has an inevitably crucial role to play in the outcome of the upcoming assembly elections in Goa.
This is not the politics of caste, but the development of OBCs
Palekar after being announced as the face for the Chief Minister's post, AAP's Bhandari community candidate Amit Palekar said that the Aam Aadmi Party has started taking serious efforts for the development of the OBCs, and his nomination has nothing to do with caste politics. He claimed that this cannot be called a move made in the garb of caste politics, it's rather a sincere effort to boost the representation of the OBCs in state politics.
Neither party considered OBCs - Naik
"If the history of the state is dug out, it may be observed that despite the OBC community is an important part of the population dynamics in Goa, the community has barely received as much political recognition or exposure ever since India became independent. All the political parties used the OBC community just for political gains. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal called on me to understand our feelings for representation of the OBC community and promised to give representation to the OBC community," said Ashok Naik, president of Gomantak Bhandari community. He also clarified that the Bhandari community intends to support the party which will provide maximum representation to the community.
