With Mahayuti set to take Maharashtra, ‘disappointed resort owner’ jokes amuse voters

With early trends showing a landslide victory for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, meme-makers could not help but wonder about the fate of resort owners.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance is headed for a comfortable win in Maharashtra. The alliance, which consists of three major parties - the BJP, the Shiv Sena, and the NCP, is taking on the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the Maharashtra assembly election 2024.

Maharashtra assembly election: Disappointed resort owner memes flood X (X/@csaitheja)

According to initial trends, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is leading in 55 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 35, and the BJP has the most, leading in 128 seats. The Rashtriya Yuva Swabhiman Party (RYSWP), which is also part of the Mahayuti alliance, has one seat.

With early trends showing a landslide victory for the Mahayuti, meme-makers could not help but wonder about the fate of resort owners in an amusing trend that is catching up on social media.

Resort owners disappointed?

The ‘resort owner’ jokes have their roots in Indian politics, where political parties sometimes "secure" their elected or winning representatives to prevent defections or poaching by rival parties. A number of times, when no party wins a clear majority in an election, there's a risk that rival parties might try to persuade or poach elected members to switch sides. To prevent this, parties often gather their elected candidates and whisk them away by bus to an undisclosed location - often a resort in the outskirts of the city or outside the state.

Take a look at some of the funniest memes below:

Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to hold the Maharashtra Legislative Party meeting on November 25 and the oath-taking ceremony on 26, sources said on Saturday. A larger meeting of the Yuti alliance is also likely to be held around the same time.