Baramati, Oct. 9: Narendra Modi today appeared to have bearded Sharad Pawar in his den, Baramati, a seat the Nationalist Congress Party chief first won in 1967 as a Congressman and has never lost since.

Locals stressed that Modi was the first leader to step in and roar on Pawar’s turf in western Maharashtra, an act that would have been construed as “defiance” even by the mighty Balasaheb Thackeray. In his lifetime, the Shiv Sena founder would often “threaten” to campaign against Pawar before elections, only to avoid it discreetly later.

Today, Prime Minister Modi seemed to have no such qualms. He descended on a field in a chopper with two aircraft in tow, on a hot, dusty afternoon before a crowd that had packed the venue and even spilled over.

The Prime Minister was cheered when he promised the Dhangars, a local nomadic tribe, that if the BJP was voted to power in Maharashtra, its government would fulfil the group’s long-standing demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The group accounts for over 20 per cent of Baramati voters.

Modi was applauded when he declared that he would liberate Baramati from the “slave-like” clutches of “chacha” (uncle Sharad Pawar) and “bhatija” (nephew Ajit Pawar who was the deputy chief minister in the Congress-NCP Maharashtra government).

“This grand sea of human beings I see before me, you people have congregated not simply to elect a government, not simply to vote in legislators but also to liberate yourselves from the clutches of the uncle-nephew duo. India got Independence decades ago but a pernicious form of slavery persisted in Baramati. Nothing is safe here, not your fields, not your land, not even your dreams. There is no water to irrigate your fields. You are not free to sell the sugarcane you grow without the intervention of the uncle and nephew,” said Modi, drawing claps each time he mentioned Pawar’s name.

The Prime Minister recalled when an activist had fasted for several days last year to demand water for parched areas of western Maharashtra, then deputy chief minister Ajit had mocked the protest by asking “if he ought to urinate on the fields instead”. “I cannot utter the words that were used. Such people become ministers. I hang my head in shame,” Modi told the rally.

The Prime Minister recalled that just as Mahatma Gandhi — a leitmotif in his recent addresses — had picked up a fistful of salt on October 15, 1930, at Dandi and sounded the bugle to unyoke India from the British, the people of Baramati “need not even display fists to free themselves but just press a finger on the button signifying the lotus (BJP) symbol” when they vote on October 15.

“Please note how the NCP’s clock (its election symbol) never ticks. It is soundless. Its hands stand frozen at 10:10. What does that mean? It means that for 10 full years, the family’s corruption has multiplied 10 times,” Modi alleged.

But the anti-Pawar theme was motivated not just by the venue, Baramati. Local BJP workers claimed there was a political subtext to it.

“Ever since the BJP broke up with the Sena, there were innuendoes that we were cosying up to the NCP. It was said that if we fall short of a majority, we would take the NCP’s help. The reality is that the NCP has become a byword for corruption, it is a bad word in Maharashtra. We have to counter this propaganda, or we will get tarred. That is why Modiji was extra aggressive today,” said one office-bearer.

Modi accused Pawar of having reneged on his party’s 2009 manifesto promise to give ST status to the Dhangars. Classified as a nomadic tribe, the Dhangars — shepherds by occupation — currently get 3.5 per cent reservation in jobs and education under the nomadic tribes’ category.

But they have been demanding, since the 1960s, the ST status that will entitle them to political reservations too. “You (Pawar) stabbed the Dhangars in the back. You promised them something. But when they were forced to fight for their rights, you neither heard them nor understood their feelings,” Modi said.

In 2007, the Gujjars of Rajasthan had raised a similar demand, asking to be removed as OBCs and reclassified as STs. But Vasundhara Raje, the then BJP chief minister, didn’t accept their pleas, presided over a bloody agitation and was voted out in the 2008 polls. The defeat was blamed in large part on the loss of Gujjar votes.

In Maharashtra, the Dhangars intensified their agitation this July after the Congress-NCP government announced 16 per cent reservation for the economically backward sections of Marathas and 5 per cent for such sections of Muslims in education and jobs. The Pawars are Marathas.

The Dhangars’ protests were spearheaded by community leader Mahadev Jankar, who gave Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule a tough fight in Baramati in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. Jankar was a candidate of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, a BJP ally.

This afternoon, he was there at Modi’s rally, telling the crowd that a “spelling mistake” had deprived his community of its “rightful” privilege. The Dhangars, Jankar said, are spelt “Dhangads” in an official gazette. The letter “d” made all the difference to their lives, Jankar said, as the “Dhangads” are recognised only as a nomadic tribe.