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Former BJP member and Maharashtra-based Dhangar OBC leader Prakash Shendge demanded here on Saturday that South Mumbai’s Churchgate suburban railway station must be renamed after Ahilyabai
Holkar, a queen of the erstwhile Maratha-ruled Malwa kingdom. “There is neither any church nor any gate here. So why retain the name Churchgate? An intersection close to the railway station
has already been named after Ahilyabai Holkar. Now it is time that the station also carries her legacy,” Shendge said. Advertisement Shendge criticised the BJP and accused the party of
failing to fulfill the promise of granting reservation to the OBC community of Dhangars, who are shepherds included in the list of Nomadic Tribes (NT). Incidentally, Dhangars have been
demanding reservation benefits under the (scheduled tribes) ST quota for the past several years. Advertisement “The man who promised ST status to Dhangars is now the chief minister. He held
the post twice earlier, yet the (Dhangar) community received nothing,” Shendge said without naming present Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. However, the issue of giving
reservation quotas to Dhangars under the ST category has always been opposed strongly. For instance, in October 2024, Ajit Pawar-led NCP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal
along with three other legislators had jumped from the third floor of the Mantralaya (Maharashtra’s state secretariat building) to oppose the demand of the Dhangar community be included in
the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, which was reportedly being considered by the previous Mahayuti government, then headed by Eknath Shinde, with an eye on the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly
Elections. Shendge’s demand to rename Churchgate railway station after Ahilyabai Holkar has come at a time when elections to the local civic bodies of Maharashtra are expected to be
announced soon and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal has been inducted into the Maharashtra cabinet as Food & Civil Supplies Minister, as the BJP-led Mahayuti government’s OBC face. As
president of an outfit called the OBC Jan Morcha, Prakash Shendge has a track record of threatening agitations if Marathas are given reservations under the Other Backward Classes (OBC)
category. In terms of electoral caste arithmetic, Maharashtra has a significant population of Marathas and OBCs, who are in a demographic position to make or break the fortunes of any
political coalition, and the soon-to-be-announced election to local civic bodies and municipalities is unlikely to be an exception. With 52% of the state’s population demarcated as OBC, they
are a force to reckon with in Maharashtra’s politics. After winning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by a narrow margin, the BJP studied each state and tried to give a chance to influential and
hitherto unrepresented social groups in power. The BJP-led Mahayuti used the same strategy to win assembly elections in Maharashtra. Chhagan Bhujbal being inducted into the cabinet recently
is also seen as a continuation of the same strategy by political observers, who now speculate that Shendge raising the demand for a Dhangar reservation quota is an attempt to cash in on
political compulsions just before the soon-to-be-announced local civic body elections. Advertisement