Royal rift: Sambhajiraje to go solo with Swarajya Sangathana

Political ambitions are known to create rifts in families, and the latest family where cracks have emerged for similar aspirations is in the influential royal household of Kolhapur.
Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the descendant of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was elected the Congress MP from Kolhapur after the Lok Sabha elections this year. At the time although the 76-year-old’s decision to contest the polls did not go down well with his ambitious son Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, the latter decided to remain in the shadows. Now, ahead of the Assembly elections, he has made a clean break with an independent party called Swarajya Sangathana. He made the first move for the way forward on Wednesday by meeting Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil for a possible alliance, although the latter did not offer any assurance.
“I wanted to contest the Lok Sabha polls but after my father stepped up, I decided to withdraw my name,” said Sambhajiraje.
The 53-year-old had formed the political outfit Swarajya Sangathana in August 2022, and in March of the following year, declared that he would contest the Lok Sabha elections independently; the plan was dropped when his father entered the fray from Congress.
“I have come out to be in a different role. We (he and his father) follow the ideology of Shivaji Maharaj and Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar. However, if I don’t fit into the Congress, how can I stay there,” he said, expressing reluctance to be part of the party. “I want to travel across Maharashtra through Swarajya Sangathana.”
Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj is the great grandson of Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, a Maratha king, who is well known for his social reforms and was the pioneer of reservation in the country.
While his mild mannered father adheres to a secular ideology, Sambhajiraje is willing to push the envelope.
Sambhajiraje has been trying to mobilize the Maratha community to intensify the agitation for reservation for the last three years, after the law was scrapped by the Supreme Court in May 2021. He led many protests, including an indefinite hunger strike in Mumbai demanding reservation for the community. Last year, he lost the spotlight when Jarange-Patil entered the scene – his indefinite hunger strike where the police led a lathicharge on his supporters in Jalna was to lead him into a larger and complex political narrative.
Jarange-Patil’s celebrity has made Sambhajiraje uneasy, observed a senior Congress leader. “Previously, Jarange-Patil snatched the limelight from him over the reservation, and later his plans to contest Lok Sabha from Kolhapur was also shattered when his father decided to contest the polls,” said the leader.
Last month, Sambhajiraje drew focus on himself when he declared that he would remove encroachments on the foothills of Vishalgad Fort on his own. His plan was thwarted when a mob led by right wing groups went berserk and attacked Gajapur village, six kilometers away from the fort. The mob assaulted villagers, vandalized a mosque and properties belonging to Muslims, besides pelting stones. The police booked Sambhajiraje along with 500 others for arson and rioting.
He wanted to contest the Rajya Sabha polls in 2022 but failed to muster support from the MVA after BJP chose not to field him. He subsequently alleged the then chief minister and undivided Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had failed to keep his word, which was rejected by his own father Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj who said Shiv Sena’s decision was not an insult to the royal family.