Why MES lost its hold

Factionalism among leaders, disenchantment with local leaders among voters and the rising influence of Hindutva forces among the young seems to have led to the defeat of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belagavi in the Assembly elections.

The 70-year-old party, focused on the issue of merger of Belagavi, Karwar, Bidar and other Marathi speaking areas in Karnataka with Maharashtra, has seen better days. In the first two elections in 1952 and 1957, MES won all seats in Belagavi district. In 1994, five of its nominees won. But all of its candidates lost in 2008 and 2018. MES sent large number of members to the Belagavi municipality and later the city corporation. The language issue affected the functioning of the urban local body so much that the members were divided into Kannada, Urdu and Marathi groups and not as Congress, BJP or JD(S). Since independence, Belagavi has seen only five ‘Kannada’ Mayors, the rest being from Marathi groups.

However, four of its candidates lost in the district this time. Observers say it is due to senior leaders forming their own groups due to ego clashes, the younger generation of Marathi speakers not sympathising with the language cause and the increasing influence of Hindutva.

MES leaders concede the party is plagued by factionalism, but do not say it led to their defeat. “There may be factions in the party, but the issue still finds resonance among the public,’’ says Deepak Dalvi, senior MES leader. He attributes the poor performance to money power, casteism and other issues.

“Increasing reliance on Marathi medium education robbed a generation of Marathi speakers of government jobs in Karnataka,’’ says Mahesh Gaekwad, an activist. The young people of today go to English medium schools and colleges and converse in Hindi. MES does not appear in their conversations, said Mr. Gaekwad.

The steady rise of Hindutva forces in Belagavi also led to dilution of MES cadre. Since 2000, youngsters who were active in MES began attending rallies and events of mainstream parties like the BJP and other groups like Sri Ram Sene and Bajrang Dal. The number of BJP MLAs grew to 10 in 2013 and stayed the same in 2018. Some of the MES leaders like Shivaji Sutnkar and Anil Benake switched to the BJP and got tickets. This dispersed the cadre further. The saffron flag of the MES is indistinguishable from the BJP’s saffron now, says Subhash Kulkarni, writer who runs a charity in Belagavi.