Maharashtra election: As polls draws near, BJP amplifies campaign

The BJP is contesting 148 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde) 80 and NCP (Ajit Pawar) 53 seats, while a few seats have been allotted to smaller parties

As it inches closer to the polling day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has amplified the outreach in Maharashtra with senior party leaders pitching the party’s welfare policies, emphasising its ideological credentials and highlighting the “chinks” in the opposition’s coalition at rallies and door-to-door meetings to get a lead over the opponents said people aware of the details. The state will go to the polls on November 20.

The state will go to the polls on November 20. (Representative file photo)

Over the course of the next few days, the party has lined up a multitude of big and small rallies, but senior leaders have also been instructed to stick to shoe-leather campaigns that the BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are known for.

“As always Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led from the front... he has addressed over a dozen rallies. Party president JP Nadda and other senior ministers including Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari have also extensively campaigned. Now, we are intensifying the outreach by highlighting the weaknesses of the opposition’s coalition and drawing a contrast between the wobbly Mahavikas Agadi (opposition) that has inherent differences and the Mahayuti (NDA) that has natural allies combining forces,” said a senior party leader.

The BJP and Sangh cadre, particularly in the rural areas, has been instructed to draw a comparison between the BJP ruled states and the Congress-led ones.

“The biggest factor in favour of the BJP is credibility. What we mention in the manifesto is implemented... when we promise aid for women, we provide budgetary allowances for it; when we talk about the farmers it is not a mere assurance...” said the leader quoted above.

With the BJP having promised sops for women and farmers, two groups that will sway the election outcome, party leaders assert that the sentiment on the ground is fertile for conversion into votes.

“There are five reasons why the Mahayuti has an edge. First, the coalition of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharad Chadra Pawar) is in disarray, they are not ideologically tethered. Second, their campaign has been tepid and ineffective. Third, there is no anti-incumbency against the state government (led by Mahayuti). The opposition’s attempts to build on the Maratha reservation fizzled out and the welfare schemes of the BJP have put the party in the lead,” said a second senior functionary, who helms the party’s campaign in the state.

The steps taken by the NDA to tame rebels have also come as a shot for the ruling coalition.

“There was a concerted effort made by senior party leaders to reach out to the rebels, hear their concerns and convince them to withdraw. A big challenge for the MVA today is the rebel factor,” the second leader said.

The BJP is contesting 148 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde) 80 and NCP (Ajit Pawar) 53 seats, while a few seats have been allotted to smaller parties.

Party leaders said the focus on women, farmers, employment and sops such as a waiver of upto ₹100 on electricity bills, monthly allowance under the Ladki Bahin Yojana and the revision in the senior citizen pension scheme will blunt any negative sentiment against the Mahayuti.