Ruling alliance Mahayuti shifts gears, leaders plan statewide campaign
Top leaders of the three parties will soon start criss-crossing the state as a massive campaign blitzkrieg is expected to be unveiled
Rattled by its poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the three-party ruling alliance has shifted gears. It began with the presentation of the budget that had several populist announcements. The result of last week’s legislative council election has now boosted the morale in the ruling Mahayuti camp since not a single MLA from BJP’s two allies - both chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP—voted for rival parties. This was significant in the backdrop of speculations that several MLAs from the two parties could shift sides ahead of assembly elections.
For the past two weeks, a lot of things are happening behind the scenes. The three parties, especially the BJP, have decided that Shinde will be the face of the alliance. They have also began working on seat-sharing talks in advance to avoid the public display of differences over sharing of seats that happened before the Lok Sabha elections. The allies have also been told that their leaders and legislators should avoid targeting each other publicly which could be the reason why allegations and counter-allegations in the ruling camp have suddenly stopped. The allies are also not making any claims publicly on how many seats they want to contest.
In the last week, both Shinde and Ajit Pawar made a trip to Delhi separately. Insiders said this was in connection with seat-sharing talks for the assembly polls. Top leaders of the three parties will soon start criss-crossing the state as a massive campaign blitzkrieg is expected to be unveiled. Ajit Pawar has already launched his campaign from Baramati.
Going by the trends in Lok Sabha, the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition is ahead of the ruling alliance. A survey published by Sakal newspaper two days ago shows that the MVA could cross 150 seats—five more than a simple majority in the assembly. The MVA coming to power could put a question mark on the political future of all three top leaders of the ruling alliance as both Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray are waiting to settle the scores after losing their parties. As of now, the trio have buried their differences and are gearing up to retain power. The assembly elections are sure to be a potboiler.
Embarrassing defeat
Peasant and Workers Party (PWP) leader Jayant Patil’s defeat was largely anticipated given the fact that the opposition did not have enough votes to get three candidates elected and the Congress supported the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate. Patil too had realised that he would not win. However, what is embarrassing is the possibility that his party’s lone MLA may not have voted for him. Patil was supported by NCP (SP) which has 12 MLAs. PWP has one MLA, Shyamsundar Shinde, from Loha in Nanded district. When the votes were counted, it turned out that he got 12 votes. This means that either an NCP MLA did not vote for him or it was his own party’s MLA. Further, it appeared that PWP’s ideological ally, CPI (M) too did not vote for Patil. “It seems even our people did not vote in my favour,” Patil lamented after the elections.
Will he or won’t he?
As Ajit Pawar launched his campaign for assembly elections with a public rally in Baramati on Saturday, the question doing the rounds was: Will he contest again from Baramati assembly constituency that has elected him seven times?
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, he had said in a public meeting that he would not contest from Baramati again if his candidate is not elected by the people in Lok Sabha. This was before he fielded his wife Sunetra from the Pawar family stronghold. Sunetra lost to sister-in-law Supriya Sule by a margin of 1.58 lakh votes, which came as a major embarrassment for the deputy chief minister. On Saturday, a video of his old speech was doing the rounds with a question whether he would contest again from Baramati or would one of his sons—Parth or Jay—make their debut from the family pocket-borough. His close aides however insist that he would contest from the same constituency this time as well.
Back to the job
A powerful BJP minister had decided to field one of his personal assistants for assembly election from a constituency held by his party. The PA had even resigned and started visiting the constituency, which disturbed the sitting MLA of his party. However, things changed after the party’s rout in LS polls in the state. Sensing the mood in the party, the minister changed some of his plans. Recently, the PA withdrew his resignation and quietly returned to his job, leading to speculations in the party that he may not contest the assembly elections now.