Why BJP-NCP row in Maharashtra has turned into a Savarkar vs Ambedkar debate

This row between the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP comes at a time when the equation between the two alliance partners is at an all-time low.

As the campaign for the January 15 elections to Maharashtra’s 29 municipal corporations heats up, the friction between the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has taken on a new dimension, with the former invoking Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the Ajit Pawar-led party, in response, invoking B R Ambedkar and his legacy as the architect of the Constitution.

Responding to the NCP and Pawar’s biting criticism over corruption, Maharashtra BJP leaders have invoked a famous quote of Savarkar to take aim at their alliance partner: “If you come along with us, we are with you. If you do not, then without you. If you oppose us, then in spite of you, Hindutva shall prevail.” Savarkar originally made this statement in 1937, when he was the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, in the context of strained relations with the Muslim League under M A Jinnah and following the elections held that year.

“The BJP has always held Savarkar in the highest esteem. It has never compromised Hindutva for power and politics,” BJP’s state Cultural Affairs Minister Ashish Shelar said on Tuesday. Echoing him, state BJP president Ravindra Chavan said, “We hold Savarkar as our ideologue. And we expect those who join us to show the same reverence towards Savarkar.”

By invoking this quote, the BJP has signalled that on broader ideological questions, it is not willing to compromise even with its allies and won’t turn the other cheek when its allies go hammer and tongs at it, questioning its governance track record and credibility. It also signals that the party expects them to show the same reverence to Savarkar, something that NCP insiders think is a ploy to push their party on the backfoot knowing that it depends on the secular vote bank, including Muslims.

In response, NCP state general secretary and MLC Amol Mitkari said, “What right does the BJP have to force others to accept its ideology? In a democracy, each party has the right to pursue its own path.” He further wrote on X on Tuesday, “The NCP is committed to Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar ideology. If we don’t accept the ideology that the BJP wants us to, it is a fact that the BJP will have to accept our party’s Ambedkarite ideology, even if it is unwillingly.”

Ambedkar and Savarkar had a complex relationship that, while marked by the recognition of each other’s efforts at social reform, also saw fundamental disagreements on the questions of caste and nation-building.

This BJP-NCP row comes at a time when the equation between the two alliance partners is at an all-time low. Already miffed with Ajit Pawar’s decision to tie up with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) in the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the NCP further antagonised the BJP with repeated attacks over corruption allegations in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation that the BJP governed from 2017 to 2022.

“When we evoke Savarkar, the purpose is to signal we stand for the unity of majority Hindus on hard Hindutva against the anti-BJP votes for the NCP as well as Opposition parties such as the (Uddhav Thackeray-led) Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), the Congress, and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA),” said a BJP insider.

Though the BJP has been behind the splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, and formed a government with two of the breakaway factions, it has shied away from raising its ideological positions and goals. The latest Savarkar push appears to be an attempt to box in the NCP, with whom it is not allied in a majority of municipal corporation elections, including the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). One of the reasons why the NCP has stepped up its attacks on the BJP is that the latter is looking to expand into areas seen as its turf in its bid to expand the grassroots network following the Assembly election victory in late 2024. However, a strengthened BJP means a loss in leverage for its Mahayuti allies.

“The BJP-RSS attempt is to rake up Savarkar and Hindutva to counter the Marathi-Muslim-Dalit vote bank,” said VBA president Prakash Ambedkar, whose party has allied with the Congress in the BMC polls.

Unlike the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, when the BJP, Sena and NCP were united under the Mahayuti banner, local body polls have exposed and widened cracks in the alliance, Ambedkar said.