The Maha win for Mahayuti and the million-dollar question it poses
MAHARASTRA,NOV 23 : The Mahayuti alliance — the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP — has routed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in a Maharashtra election result that has shocked many. With congratulatory messages pouring in by the minute, every leader in the alliance is wearing a broad smile and why not.
The BJP, in fact, bested their showing in elections to India’s richest state, by winning almost 90% of the 149 seats they contested.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP was another big winner, winning almost 70% of the seats they fought in.
Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena with their 50-plus seats turned out to be as successful as the whole of Maha Vikas Aghadi!
The shift in emphasis to local issues, the return of the RSS and their diligent grassroots-level campaigning and most importantly the successful implementation of the Ladki Bahin yojana launched in August 2024 that offers Rs 1,500 each to over one crore women in Maharashtra every month have been seen as the big game changers. This after a Lok Sabha election that favoured the MVA just six months ago.
CM Shinde was among those who felt that the Ladki Bahin yojana played a big part in scripting the win. “I thank all my ladki bahins (dear sisters) in the state and the brothers who voted in large numbers for us,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar too felt “the scheme defeated each of our adversaries”.
“I have not seen such a victory in my memory,” he went on to say.
30.64 million of the 46.99 million women voters registered with the Election Commission had voted in the 2024 assembly elections. This was 5.25 million more than the 25.39 million who voted in 2019. No wonder women power is being credited as having decided the election.
The sweeping results have also thrown up one big question, while also strengthening the hands of two local leaders, besides Devendra Fadnavis.
Million-dollar question: Who will be Maha CM — Fadnavis or Shinde?
The BJP’s barn-storming performance has already led to calls for Devendra Fadnavis being immediately anointed as the next Chief Minister.
Fadnavis, for his part, has made it clear that the Mahayuti will decide. But which way will the dice roll?
Getting within sniffing distance of the majority has meant that the BJP can form the government by joining hands with Ajit Pawar’s NCP alone. Will they do that to ensure Fadnavis returns to power?
The temptation may be strong, but the big question is whether they can afford to ignore an Eknath Shinde who led the government that went into the polls and sealed the win?
More so at a time when Shinde’s Sena has shown that they are a force to be reckoned with. That is the moot question.
Interestingly, the results also throw up the possibility of a rotational Chief Ministership being worked out as a compromise formula.
Shinde: The man who knows to steer his way around
With the emphatic win, another glorius chapter has been added to the story of Eknath Shinde’s meteoric rise from autorickshaw driver to CM.
His ascension in June 2022 to the top post in Maharashtra might have been dismissed by some as a back-stabbing exercise, but even his critics couldn’t grudge him his moment in the limelight this time around.
It was the Shinde sarkar which went out to fight the polls and in most places people saw the Mahayuti candidates to be representing his government. And how the party and its allies went on to perform!
The 60-year-old has proven that he has truly emerged out of the shadows of Bal Thackeray and trumped Uddhav too. It must be remembered that Shinde’s Sena had also performed well in the Lok Sabha polls.
Many experts see Shinde as the driving force behind the win, along with Fadnavis.
The CM’s implementation of the Ladki Behna yojana three months before the election is like we said before being seen as having played a big role in sealing this Maha win.
An accessible leader with top-notch organisation skills, Shinde has then proven that he is here to stay.
The man who holds the reins of power at the moment has definitely underlined that he cannot be ignored in any post-poll permutations and also in Maharashtra politics in the days ahead.
You count Sharad Pawar out in Maharashtra politics only at your own peril. But at 83, the elder Pawar has been inflicted a drubbing the likes of which he might not have imagined even in his worst nightmares.
The blow must have left the strong man of Baramati, who was seen by many as the possible kingmaker, with a lot to ponder about.
What a change in fortunes in comparison to the Lok Sabha polls!
Worryingly, the next line of leadership is virtually non-existent in his party in the state. Daughter Supriya Sule may be able to win Lok Sabha seats, but helping her party stay relevant in state politics might prove beyond her.
By winning the Pawar games this time around, Ajit has then not only confirmed a return as Deputy CM but also possibly opened the possibility of a rapprochment with his uncle and on terms that would be favourable to him.
In this backdrop, what could play out in NCP politics could well form the most interesting sub-plot in the days to come.
-PTI
