'Shinde, via Jarange Patil, is making his moves to become the sole leader of the oppressed, poor, backward Marathas in Maharashtra.'
Behind the dramatic scenes of Maratha protesters thronging railway stations and luxury hotels in Mumbai lies a far more complex political calculation, according to political analyst Vivek Bhavsar who claims in this interview to Prasanna D Zore/Rediff that a seemingly spontaneous quota agitation may have been orchestrated by senior leaders of Maharashtra's ruling coalition.
In the first part of your interview, you claimed, 'The masterminds are controlling the agitation from behind the scenes.'
Who are these 'masterminds' behind Manoj Jarange Patil and his Maratha agitation?
According to my information, and I am saying this on record, Uday Samant met Jarange Patil in the first week of August.
Shiv Sena leader Samant is a cabinet minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government and is considered very close to Eknath Shinde. While (before this meeting) Jarange Patil had hinted that he would restart his agitation soon, he didn't seem so well prepared or determined.
Jarange Patil's body language, aggression and rhetoric completely changed after this meeting with Uday Samant. Then Jarange Patil openly threatened that he would march with his supporters to Mumbai. He said he would topple Chief Minister Fadnavis and his government.
Based on this chronology of events, one begins to suspect who the mastermind behind Jarange could be. When you consider the force egging him on, the needle of suspicion points towards Eknath Shinde.
What could Eknath Shinde possibly gain by destabilising his own government?!
Shinde has been restless for quite some time after the formation of the government last year. Though his party won big in the Vidhan Sabha elections because of the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana -- and all credit must go to him -- he was made to quit the chief ministerial race. That left Shinde deeply scarred.
He made his moves to catapult himself as chief minister again but failed. However, given the way coalition governments have been working in the state since 1995, when the Shiv Sena-BJP captured power in the state, there is a pattern.
The party which won the highest number of seats among the alliance partners got the chief minister's position. Shinde had to play second fiddle.
It was only natural justice that the BJP, which won 135 seats, claimed the chief minister's post. The halfway mark in the Maharashtra assembly is 144.
One must not forget how Shinde created roadblocks when this government came into place. He delayed the formation of a government that had an absolute, overwhelming majority of 230 out of the 288 assembly seats in its kitty.
Soon after the government was formed, Shinde has been playing tricks to hinder this government's proper functioning. During every crisis and crucial time since this government was formed, Shinde ensured he was in Dare, his native village. Network connectivity there is erratic, to say the least.
That Jarange Patil was heading towards Mumbai was known to every leader of any worth in the government. Shinde is deputy chief minister, no less. This time, too, he seems to have abandoned the government and headed back to his village.
Is this Eknath Shinde's game plan to weaken Devendra Fadnavis?
Absolutely! His only intention now is to weaken and destabilise the Fadnavis government at any cost. Shinde's thinking is if I am unable to become chief minister, then at least destabilise this government and get Fadnavis out of the way.
Shinde has been cleverly working at resurrecting his image as a leader of the backward Marathas in the state. Jarange Patil has been leading their quota agitation. This is as opposed to Ajit Pawar, the other deputy chief minister, who is the leader of the established Maratha elite in the state.
Shinde, via Jarange Patil, is making his moves to become the sole leader of the oppressed, poor, backward Marathas in Maharashtra.
According to my information, all the prominent Maratha ministers and leaders across all political parties, including the BJP, are aligning themselves. Their sole intention is to weaken Devendra Fadnavis.
Shinde and other Maratha leaders, cutting across party lines, are cleverly playing the Brahmin versus Maratha card from behind the Jarange Patil agitation.
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Industries Minister Uday Samant, one of the four members of the state cabinet sub-committee appointed by Chief Minister Fadnavis to hold negotiations with Manoj Jarange Patil, refutes the charge that Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had any role in prodding the Maratha leader to come to Mumbai and protest for Maratha quota.
Samant also pointed out that he did not meet with Jarange Patil in the first week of August as claimed by Bhavsar. "I did meet him three-four months ago at his village in Antarwali-Sarathi while coming back from an official tour. I did not meet him in the first week of August," Samant tells Rediff's Prasanna D Zore on the phone.
When asked how he and the other three members -- including the committee chairperson and Water Resources Minister for the Godavari and Krishna Valley regions Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil along with PWD Minister Shivendra Raje Bhosale and Manikrao Kokate, the sports and youth welfare minister -- convinced Jarange Patil to call off his agitation, Samant says, "There was no question of convincing anybody. The Fadnavis government decided to issue a government resolution to accept the Hyderabad Gazetteer, which was also his demand. Once this GR was issued he called off his protest."
Asked to respond to the claim that he met Jarange Patil in the first week of August 2025, Samant says, "I did not incite him to come to Mumbai and sit on an indefinite fast. Since I am a member of the sub-committee he (Jarange Patil) asked me to meet him and since I was passing through his village during one of my official tours I went to meet him. But that was not in the first week of August. It was three-four months before."
Another Shiv Sena cabinet minister in the Fadnavis government too played down the belief that Fadnavis and Shinde don't share a good relationship since government formation last December. "Just this morning I saw both of them having a hearty laugh together," says this minister.
When asked why Shinde did not make attempts to stop Jarange Patil before he reached Mumbai, just like he had done in January 2024 when he was Maharashtra chief minister, this minister says, "If Fadnavis had asked Shinde saheb to do so he would have tried. Nobody asked him so he did not go."
"But let me assure you there is no way that the CM and DCM are upset with each other and the DCM is trying to topple the applecart. I don't think so this is what is happening."
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