Stay alert, united, say Hindutva forces as Fadnavis holds up Dhule example

It might not be just pre-election rhetoric when BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis holds up the Dhule example. Seen as a bid to consolidate votes with “Batenge to katenge” and “vote jihad”, the BJP might actually be wary of losing seats in the Maharashtra Assembly election to fractured voting. That Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about “Ek hai to safe hai”, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) hit the ground to consolidate votes are evidence enough.
So what happened in Dhule that Fadnavis, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, is highlighting?
The Congress won the Dhule Lok Sabha seat, defeating the BJP by a slim margin of 3,800 votes. However, it is not just the defeat but the way the defeat was brought about seems to be of concern to the BJP.
The Dhule parliamentary seat has six Assembly segments. According to data provided by Fadnavis, it was due to en-bloc voting in one Assembly segment that the BJP lost the Lok Sabha seat. That is despite the party winning five of the six Assembly segments.
It was the Malegaon Central Assembly segment that, according to Fadnavis, saw consolidated voting for the Congress candidate.
Such was the number of votes for the Congress in Malegaon Central that it didn’t just nullify the BJP’s advantage in the five other segments, but won the party the Lok Sabha seat.
The BJP candidate polled more votes than the Congress contestant in Bhamre, Dhule Rural, Sindhkhed, Malegaon Outer, Baglan and Dhule City.
Fadnavis said the BJP was ahead by 1.90 lakh votes in Dhule, but the Malegaon Assembly segment got 1.94 lakh votes for the Congress, thus tipping the scales.
“We were defeated by only 4,000 votes. This vote jihad was the reason for our defeat there because we were not together,” he said.
Fadnavis was alluding to the en-bloc voting by Muslims in Malegaon Central in contrast to fractured voting in all other segments by Hindus.

The 2024 Lok Sabha election result of Maharashtra’s Dhule seat (Assembly segment-wise result). (Graphic by Arun Prakash Uniyal/ India Today)

The repeated citing of example of the Dhule by Fadnavis comes even as PM Modi introduced the slogan ‘Ek rahenge to safe rahenge’ (Safety in unity).
Modi attacked the Congress over its alleged attempts to create a rift with caste politics.
At a rally in Dhule, Modi accused the Congress and its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies of pitting one caste against another and asked people to stay united.
“They do not want SCs, STs and OBCs to progress and get their due recognition. Remember, ‘Ek hai toh safe hai’,” he said.
The BJP, part of the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, is most likely trying to prevent a fragmentation of Hindu votes on caste lines and lose out to consolidated voting.
The RSS is working on the ground in Maharashtra with its Sajag Raho (stay alert) programme, involving 65 friendly organisations, to prevent a division of Hindu votes on caste lines and make the state ‘hatred-free’, reported news agency UNI.
A senior BJP functionary told The Times of India that the RSS and the 65 NGOs were organising “hundreds of meetings” to convey the message of Hindu unity.
In the meetings, swayamsevaks and the NGOs are highlighting the Dhule Lok Sabha example, said the TOI report, adding that the RSS didn’t officially own up to the Sajag Raho programme, and called it an initiative of its cadre.
The RSS call of ‘Sajag Raho’ is being seen as supplementing ‘Batenge to katenge’ and ‘Ek ha to safe hai’.
With Dhule as an eye-opener, there seems to be a concerted effort at getting the Hindu votes together in the crucial Maharashtra Assembly election. If the effort has succeeded, it will be known on November 23 when results are declared.