How kirtankars, Warkaris fuelled a silent tsunami for BJP in Maharashtra

Surprise or shock were the only two feelings that the Maharashtra election result delivered. Such was the scale of the BJP-led Mahayuti’s victory that there was no room for ambivalence. Opposition leaders didn’t see this landslide coming, because it was a silent operation that was carried out over five months to consolidate Hindu votes. And elements of Maharashtra’s Bhakti Movement — Warkaris, kirtankars and bhajankaris — helped in this state-wide movement.
The impact of the Hindu consolidation was such that the BJP won more number of seats where the Muslim population is over 20% of the electorate, while the number dipped for the Congress. It also got the BJP the Gondiya seat for the first time, with a margin of over 60,000 votes.
The BJP won 132 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, while its Mahayuti alliance won 233 seats. The MVA was reduced to 49 seats.
Warkaris or Varkaris are pilgrims participating in the annual 250-km trek to the Lord Vitthal temple in Pandarpur (Solapur district), while kirtankars and bhajankars are those who sing verses and impart spiritual teachings. All the three are connected to 17th century Bhakti-poet Sant Tukaram, and are highly regarded in Maharashtra.
Political commentator Smita Deshmukh says the ‘Sajag Raho’ (Be Vigilant) campaign of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which involved 110 organisations, saw Warkaris, kirtankars and bhajankaris being roped in to spread the message of Hindu-unity across Maharashtra.
Maharashtra has a big tradition of kirtankars and bhajankaris, says Deshmukh, and the Sangh Parivar tapped into that. The Warkaris, for whom there is huge respect in Marathi society, were also engaged to spread the message of Hindu unity.
Their informal network’s reach is huge and spans from urban centres to diverse regions of rural Maharashtra.
Author and historian Vaibhav Purandare believes that the BJP-led Mahayuti government’s outreach to the Warkaris through fund allocation and pension had a big impact on the Assembly election.
“The impact of Warkari outreach, and how the Warkaris themselves transmitted the Mahayuti message has been felt across Maharashtra,” says Purandare, the author of Shivaji: India’s Great Warrior King and Bal Thackeray And The Rise of The Shiv Sena.
The need for such mobilisation was felt after the reverses the BJP faced in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra as the Congress and its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, spoke about the caste census.
A consolidation of Muslim votes for opposition parties and a fragmentation of Hindu votes on caste lines hurt the BJP.
Smita Deshmukh says the mobilisation started right after the jolt that the BJP received in Maharashtra in June.
According to reports, the RSS held over 60,000 voter meetings in Maharashtra with the aim of preventing Hindu votes from getting fragmented on caste lines.
“The mobilisation by the Sangh Parivar organisations was at a scale rarely seen before,” Deshmukh tells India Today Digital.
“Messages were delivered before pravachans in villages and Powada, traditional Marathi ballads, sessions,” she says.
“There were several videos on Facebook and other social media platforms where religious leaders were seen urging unity among Hindu voters,” says Deshmukh.
In one such video, Dharmic preacher and kirtankar Prakash Maharaj Sathe of the Warkari Samaj was seen asking people to vote for “those who protect Hindu Dharma, not the ones doing casteist politics”.
The BJP has been trying to woo the Warkaris for several years now. The effort gained momentum close to the election.
“Anyone who participates in the procession is a Warkari, and the annual event transcends castes and communities,” Vaibhav Purandare tells India Today Digital. “There is a dedicated force of Warkaris that participates in it every year. Their number could be in the 5-7 lakh range, and they are highly respected in their communities,” he adds.
There have been issues regarding potable water and toilets for the Warkaris for decades now.
“Politicians have routinely paid lip-service to the Warkaris even as chief minister after chief minister with their families offered the first prayer to Lord Vitthal on Ashadi Ekadashi. But no one did anything that bettered their condition,” says Purandare.
As the chief minister in 2017, Devendra Fadnavis took significant steps to improve sanitation and drinking water for Pandharpur Wari pilgrims on their 250-km journey.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis with a group of kirtankars. As Maharashtra Chief Minister, Fadnavis started outreach to the Warkaris and kirtankars.

In July, the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government established the Mukhya Mantri Warkari Sampradaya Mahamandal, allocating Rs 50 crore as start-up capital for the corporation. Additionally, the state announced a fund of Rs 20,000 per dindi (pilgrim group), starting this year.
It also introduced a pension scheme for senior citizens participating in the Pandharpur Wari pilgrimage.
Author-historian Vaibhav Purandare says the move to provide pensions and facilities to the Warkaris, and the Centre’s granting of classical language status to Marathi helped shatter the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA’s) narrative of the Mahayuti being pro-Gujarat.
“The Maharashtra government’s free pilgrimage scheme also benefits Warkaris and promotes their pilgrimage site, Pandharphur. Additionally, the Centre granted classical language status to Marathi. All these helped the Mahayuti counter the perception that the MVA built that the government had complete disregard for Maratha culture and was pro-Gujarat,” explains Purandare.
The moves showed the Mahayuti government was serious about the long-ignored socio-cultural issues related to Marathi pride.
“The Warkari procession passes through the heart of the NCP bastion. Sharad Pawar has for decades dominated the Pune-Solapur belt,” says Purandare.
The message of unity in PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Ek hai toh safe hai’ also found a resonance with the Warkaris and kirtankars as “one-ness” is at the core of the Warkari movement, explains Purandare.

PM Narendra Modi, in traditional Warkari/Varkari attire in June 2022. He is holding a stringed instrument, ektari, that the pilgrims use while singing bhajans. (Image: PIB)

Amid the silent movement of the Sangh Parivar came a video of Maulana Sajjad Nomani, calling for a social boycott of Muslims who supported the BJP and seeking votes for the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi. The video went viral.
“The Sajjad Nomani video completely turned the election. A counter-mobilisation started after that,” says political commentator Smita Deshmukh.
“In every village, before the start of bhajans and kirtans, the local pujari or spiritual leader would come and speak. They highlighted the Sajjad Nomani video,” she tells India Today Digital.
“It’s not only in villages, even in towns and cities, the pujaris (priests) helped in the counter-mobilisation. No stone was left unturned. They asked to vote for Hindu unity,” says Deshmukh.
How the division of the Hindu vote was hurting the BJP was highlighted by Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Fadnavis used the example of the Dhule seat, where, despite winning five Assembly segments, the BJP lost the Lok Sabha constituency due to overwhelming voting for the Congress in Muslim-dominated Malegaon Central.
The idea of mobilising the Warkaris and kirtankaris was to get all the OBC community, Telis, Mali, Sutar and Banjara, to vote en bloc.
“The Warkaris are highly respected, and they were used to spread the message of Hindu unity,” says Deshmukh, adding that Fadnavis acknowledged their contribution in his victory speech at the BJP office in Mumbai on November 23, the day results were declared.
In what could indicate the Hindu consolidation, of the 38 seats in Maharashtra where Muslims make up over 20% of the population, the BJP’s tally went up from 11 in 2019 to 14 this time, according to an Indian Express report. The Congress tally in such seats dipped from 11 to five.
The impact of the mobilisation was also seen in Gondiya, a Congress bastion that has rarely switched hands. The BJP could never win the seat.
For the Assembly election, the Sangh outfits held over 480 voter-contact meetings, with kirtankars being a key part of the outreach. The result was that the BJP candidate won Gondiya by a margin of 61,000 votes.
So, as some Opposition leaders are shocked by the result and others blame electronic voting machines (EVMs), it was a silent mobilisation of Warkaris and kirtankars, who hold a big sway in Marathi society, that brought about a silent tsunami, and swept the election for the BJP and the Mahayuti.