MUMBAI, Mar 9: The victory of four dalit candidates of Republican Party of India (RPI) in Maharashtra, the only party having achieved cent per cent success rate in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, is being described as a veritable social revolution in the state.This has also been for the first time since 1977 and only second time since its foundation by Dr B R Ambedkar that RPI has been able to send its representatives, albeit on Congress support, to the Lok Sabha from the state of its birth.
Its past record shows that it was always the supporting Congress, which benefitted from the alliance with RPI. But this time, caste Hindus linked to Congress shed their inhibitions and voted for RPI nominees ensuring their victory.
`The success of four RPI candidates on support of caste Hindus, who voted them in all four places was something unthinkable. This is a veritable social revolution,' BJP's general secretary Pramod Mahajan said.
The RPI's victory was led by Dr Ambedkar's grandson PrakashAmbedkar, who wrested Akola from his BJP rival Pandurang Phundkar.
The victory of RPI general secretary Ramdas Athavale from a middle-class dominated Mumbai North central delivered a rude shock to Shiv Sena which boasts of its dominance over the area from where chief minister Manohar Joshi hails.
RPI president R S Gavai and Jogendra Kawade also won from Amravati and Chimur constituencies, respectively.
The victory of RPI candidates came as a great relief to party leaders whose squabbles had brought it on the brink of derecognition not long ago.
The party is now divided into two factions -- one represented by Gavai and Athawale and the other by Ambedkar. However, Ambedkar's efforts to nullify election of Gavai and Athawale at their respective party posts failed when the Election Commission ordered a status quo after dismissing his petition just before announcement of Lok Sabha polls.
But the EC's rap did not stop both factions from conducting separate negotiations with Congress for an alliance and itwas to the credit of senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar that Congress could accommodate claims of both the factions.
Pawar's efforts bore fruits as shown by results of polls in which Congress won 33 and RPI 4, both benefitting from each other, reducing BJP-Sena's tally from 33 to meagre 10.
Before polling, it was feared that despite its alliance with RPI, Congress might not be able to ensure votes in favour of RPI nominees, as had happened many times in the past. But the fears were belied, compelling Mahajan to describe shift of caste votes of Congress to RPI as a social revolution.
The importance of poll results can be assessed from the fact that even Dr Ambedkar himself could never win from the state. He had lost from open constituency of Bhandara and had to seek election from West Bengal to be a member of Nehru's cabinet.
Coincidently, Bhandara is a neighbouring constituency of Chimur, also in backward Vidarbha region, which elected RPI's Kawade to the lower house of Parliament despite a virtuallynon-existent campaigning.
Athawale acknowledges that many people did not even know of RPI symbol but thanks to efforts by Congress workers, they searched for its symbol and voted for it.
It was, of course, not an easy task to convert all caste votes into RPI's kitty and Pawar had to ensure that his word really was carried by party workers at the lowest levels.
He, therefore, campaigned in over 150 assembly segments and held meetings of local party leaders and workers to convince them about the viability of Congress-RPI alliance and need to prove its promise unlike in the past.
In fact, nobody understands RPI's importance like Pawar, who had roped in the party in his government in 1988-91 making Athawale the social welfare minister.
However, he could not ensure success of a single RPI candidate in 1990 assembly elections despite having an alliance with it.
The year 1996 witnessed unification of all RPI factions into a united RPI which separated from Congress but the failure to win a single seateven in 1995 assembly polls perhaps forced them back into Congress arms.
When campaigning was in progress, BJP's deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde had made a surprise offer of giving his own post to RPI if that party aligned with BJP-Sena.
