NAGPUR: In Maharashtra’s direct face off between two rival alliances, the shadow of BR Ambedkar looms large. 15 months after the Bhima Koregaon agitation set off nation-wide echoes, a new Dalit assertion is struggling to find space in Maharashtra’s divided election landscape.There’s a craving for a new leadership, which is leading some Dalits towards old wine in new bottles such as the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi led by Prakash Ambedkar. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi aims to represent the new post Bhima Koregaon assertion but lacking political heft on the ground seems unlikely to play any role beyond that of spoiler.Prakash Ambedkar, who had a political re-birth of sorts after the Dalit bandh post the Bhima Koregaon protests, has given tickets to a range of Dalit subcaste like Mangs and Matangs to rid himself of the Mahar tag. However he is being targeted for allegedly selling out to the BJP by dividing the anti BJP vote. Asks Pune-based activist former judge Justice BG Kolse Patil, organizer of the Elgaar Parishad, who recently quit Ambedkar’s front: “Why is Ambedkar not allying with the opposition? I tried hard, I went to meet Rahul, Sonia, but Prakash Ambedkar refused to even meet Rahul Gandhi. “Kolse Patil, who was keen to contest from Aurangabad, says he left the Vanchit Aghadi when he realized that Ambedkar did not want to ally with the Opposition and would end up benefiting the BJP.Today, in a leadership vacuum, Maharashtra’s Dalits appear restless and frustrated. There is a feeling of being betrayed by dishonest leaders. The dominant feeling among Dalits is anger and humiliation at the hands of “manuwad” forces over the last five years. Dalits form 13.5 per cent of Maharashtra and were once a solid support bloc for the Congress.Rajya Sabha member and former Pune University VC Narendra Jadhav says there is a “silent revolution” among Maharashtra Dalits. “From painting to neurosurgery Dalit boys and girls are steaming ahead.” However, Jadhav believes Dalits have suffered politically because Ambedkar’s goal of separate electorates was denied by Mahatma Gandhi. “Ambedkar won the intellectual battle against Gandhi, but he lost the political one.” Consigned to contesting in reserved seats, Dalits became divided and functioned as stooges of the big parties. Subcastes like Mahars and Chamars have been antagonistic to each other. Ambedkar being a Mahar and the Congress stalwart Jagjivan Ram a chamar, politically the Dalits got split by subcastes. Maharashtra Dalits were never numerically strong enough, Ambedkar himself lost every election he contested, as a hegemonic Congress was determined to defeat him.However inspite of political disarray, ideologically Ambedkarism is at its height. “The highly emotional attachment to Ambedkar among educated Dalits has never been greater than today,” says Jadhav. Former UGC chairman and academic Sukhdeo Thorat says rising numbers of open atrocities against Dalits across the state, as well as massive reduction in higher education allocations and dwindling opportunities for Dalit academics, has created widespread Dalit disenchantment with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.“ Last time many dalits were drawn to the BJP, which got 25% Dalit votes, traditional INC voters among Dalits like Chamars and Matangs had shifted to the BJP. In fact the Dalit parties-BSP and RPI- got just 20% of the Dalit vote. But the rise of neo-Brahmanical Hindutva of the RSS has created a strong Ambedkarite consolidation this time.”Maharashtra has always had a strong anti-brahmin movement in the Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar tradition. Yet anti-brahminism is not reflected in a party movement as seen in the Dravida parties of Tamil Nadu. The non-Brahmin coalition has traditionally comprised Marathas, OBCs and Dalits, however this alliance has recently come under strain. In 2016 a Dalit youth was accused in the rape of a Maratha minor leading to massive Maratha protest and the formation of the Maratha Morcha which took an anti Dalit stance and demanded dilution of the SC ST Act. The Maratha-Dalit anti-Brahmin alliance today is broken.Now there is strong Dalit opposition to Maratha dominance in politics which reflects in resentment against both BJP and Congress. Surgeon Dr Mahendra Kamble says both Congress and BJP parties have inflicted humiliation on Dalits. “Dalits have suffered more at Congress hands than at the BJP,” says Kamble, pointing out that the INC candidate from Nagpur is Nana Patole who is perceived as being supportive of the Khairlanji accused. (In 2006 Dalits were brutally murdered by upper castes in Khairlanji) “What signal is the Congress sending to Dalits by fielding someone like Patole?”Opposition to manuwad ideology of BJP-RSS is equally strong. The Maharashtra government’s attempts to impose the teaching of the Gita in colleges has strongly alienated many Ambedkarites. “On the one hand Modi pays homage to Dr Ambedkar’s statue, but on the other the progressive modernist thoughts of Ambedkar are being sought to be eradicated by government action,” says RPI activist Sanjay Patil. “What are Dalits expected to make of this?’Where will the Ambedkarite vote go this time given that the Dalit vote is fragmented into castes and subcastes? “We have not been able to build a united Dalit movement or spread social education among Dalits,” admits activist and theatre artiste Sanjay Jiwne. “The two main parties have used money power and patronage to confuse Dalits.”The high point of independent Dalit political participation from Maharashtra was in 1985 when the Republican Party Of India founded by Ambedkar sent 4 MPs to Delhi—Ramdas Athawale from Pandarpur, Prakash Ambedkar from Akola, Jogendra Kawade from Nagpur and RS Gawai from Amravati. Since then, Gawai has passed away, and Kawade has more or less dropped out of active politics, Athawale is with the NDA and Ambedkar has ploughed a lonely furrow.Today, Jogendra Kawade is a silver haired rangy 75 year old, still fiery in his speech. “Dalits must ally with Muslims and other minorities to truly have a say in politics,” he says. In 78-79 he was one of the leaders of the Dalit Long March for the renaming of Marathwada University. Years before the Dalit-Muslim alliance that Prakash Ambedkar has formed with Asaduddin Owaisi of MIM this year, Kawde had attempted a similar alliance with Haji Mastan in 1983, named Dalit Muslim Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh which fell apart.“Dalits have to become aware that their future lies with a secular alliance, an alliance between Dalits and Muslims is a natural alliance because the underprivileged need democracy and the Constitution more than the privileged,” says Jogendra Kawade, former RPI MP from Nagpur. “Dalits today are a sleeping volcano.”The Dalit movement in Maharashtra suffered because of the syndrome of every leader wanting to be the sole spokesman, believes Vimal Thorat, convenor of the National campaign for Dalit Human Rights. “Leaders tend to stay alone and not join together.”Why did Maharashtra never see the birth of a party like the BSP? “The original Ambedkarite party, the RPI was born in Maharashtra, in fact Kanshi Ram learnt mobilization methods from experiences here, but the Dalit party was destroyed by too many alliances,” says Sanjay Jiwne. A surfeit of hero worship and andha bhakti betrayed Ambedkar’s mission. “The second rung of leadership after Ambedkar did not have his stature,” says Jadhav, “they had egos and mutual clashes. Dalits on their own cannot win elections.”Kolse Patil says although he’s been leading anti-brahmanvad, peoples movements for years, he remains disillusioned with the hold that the caste mentality still has among the public. Ambedkar’s revolution of the mind has not spread to the people.“The difficulty with many voters, including Dalit voters, is that they remain attached blindly loyal to a narrow caste mentality or of a single leader and often don’t think of the larger issues at stake,” says Kolse Patil. In this election he feels Dalit voters may suffer because the opposition lacks money and infrastructure to reach out and create awareness among Dalits about the economic issues like cattle ban that are impacting their lives.“We younger Dalits have been betrayed by our leaders,” says law student Toofan Kamble, “where are our leaders when we want to popularize the teachings of Savitiribai Phule in universities? Brahmanical forces are most terrified of the new generation Ambedkarite as we mount an intellectual challenge to brahmanism.” Advocate Akash Moon says he was disappointed when Chandrashekar Azad ‘Ravan’ came to Nagpur but was met by Jitendra Avhad of the NCP and not allowed to meet Dalit youths.“Dalit politics is not generating extraordinary leaders because media is creating Dalit leaders it wants and imposing them on the people and those who work at the grassroots are being co-opted by the main parties,” says Moon.There are relatively few pockets in Maharashtra where Dalits are conscious of ideological commitment. Amravati, for example, where Ambedkarite ideology has been strong, has voted Shiv Sena for the last few years and in rural areas, Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress get Dalit support. “But this time Dalits are not seeing any future in the RSS-dominated BJP,” says Thorat. “This is the big change in 2019.”