Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president JP Nadda join celebrations at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi today.
By Vinod Raghavan*
While the INDI Alliance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress Party and other smaller parties retained power in Jharkhand after today’s verdict, it was, what many poll observers termed, an “unbelievable” landslide victory for the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra.
In Jharkhand, the INDI Alliance won a remarkable 56 out of the total 81 Assembly seats under the stewardship of Chief Minister and JMM working president Hemant Soren, who is now set to continue again as the Chief Minister.
Party Wise Result in Jharkhand
Hemant’s return was not as unexpected as the Maharashtra outcome. No one predicted the Congress Party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to be completely decimated after its commendable show in the Lok Sabha elections in the state earlier this year.
The Mahayuti bagged 231 seats out of 288, and the BJP emerged as the largest party within the Mahayuti. It won 130 seats and was leading in two more at the time of going to press, despite reports coming from various parts of the state that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rally was a flop show, Home Minister Amit Shah left for Delhi before the poll deadline, leading to speculations that things were not well in the Mahayuti.
Party Wise Result in Maharashtra
The MVA now needs to do much introspection on how the Mahayuti which did badly in the Lok Sabha polls, covered their deficit backlog and achieved an unbelievable record-breaking victory in Maharashtra within a few months.
One of the MVA leaders UddhaThackeray’s close confidante and Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Raut, still couldn’t believe that MVA performed so badly and Shinde’s Shiv Sena could get all its sitting legislators reelected. “I don’t accept this as people’s verdict, something is fishy, done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with industrialist Gautam Adani to win this landslide victory,” he said.
One of the factors was that the “Ladki Bahin” scheme of the state government, announced just a few months before the election, was given much importance by the MVA leaders with their varying statements.
Another factor that played a major role in the victory was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Unlike during the Lok Sabha polls, this time RSS cadre wholeheartedly came out and campaigned vigorously mostly on religious lines. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, at a poll campaign in Maharashtra, raised the slogan – “Batenge Toh Katenge: (Divided we would be slaughtered)” This became the talk of the town and on most of the WhatsApp groups this message was circulated rampantly.
Another hot topic was the issue of the Wakf Board. Such issues were blown out of proportion and thus benefited the Mahayuti candidates.
In all 10 Muslim candidates got elected to the Maharashtra Assembly, and five of them were elected from Mumbai constituencies. Amin Patel of the Congress Party won by 34,844 votes from Mumbadevi defeating Shaina NC, who recently switched from the Bharatiya Janata Party to its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena.
Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party, an ally of the MVA, won from the Mankhurd-Govandi Assembly Constituency defeating his nearest rival candidate of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) by 12,753 votes. The Congress Party MLA Aslam Shaikh retained his traditional seat from Malad (West) with a margin of 6,227 votes.
Uddhav Thackeray’s nominee Haroon Khan of Shiv Sena (UBT) won from Versova by just 1,600 votes margin.
While Nawab Malik’s daughter Sana won from her father’s constituency Anushakti Nagar with a slender margin of 3,378 votes as Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, interestingly, Nawab Malik, lost and came third from the Mankhurd Assembly Constituency against Abu Asim Azmi of Samajwadi Party an ally of MVA.
A controversial minister in the Eknath Shinde government, Abdul Sattar of Shiv Sena), narrowly won with 2,420 votes from the Sillod Assembly Constituency.
Interestingly Malegaon which was a stronghold of Socialists, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM made inroads and managed to get its candidate Mufti Mohammed Ismail Abdul Khalique to win with a wafer-thin margin of 75 votes.
Sitting MLA and minister in the Eknath Shinde Government Hassan Mushrif, once believed to be a close aide of Sharad Pawar, managed to win comfortably with a margin of 11,581 votes from his traditional seat Kagal. From Akola West Sajid Khan Pathan of the Congress Party won with a 1283 votes margin. From Bhiwandi adjoining Mumbai, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party nominee Rais Kasam Shaikh, handsomely won with a margin of 52,015 votes.
The failure of the Thackeray brand
Both Thackeray cousins – Raj and Uddhav – and their respective political outfits have been marginalized in this election by the BJP and its alliance partners. Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) contested 125 seats, which included his son, Amit Thackeray, but could not open its account. However, Amit’s cousin and Uddhav’s son Aditya and his cousin Varun Sardesai made it to Vidhan Sabha on Shiv Sena (UBT) tickets.
With the power equation changing fast in Maharashtra, there are many talks about Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP likely becoming the Chief Minister. The BJP has said the next CM will be decided by the Mahayuti leaders Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar and the BJP central leadership.
Hintendra Thakur’s domination in the Vasai-Virar belt halted
Hitendra Thakur, president of Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) and brother of alleged underworld don of 90’s Bhai Thakur, also could not hold his stronghold of Vasai-Virar belt of extended Mumbai, as his party could not open account. His son Kshjitij, sitting MLA also lost from the densely populated Nalasopara Assembly Constituency.
Interestingly, a day before the polling day, BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde was allegedly caught by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) workers with cash and a secret diary in a hotel in Virar. Hitendra Thakur alleged that he had received a tip from Mumbai BJP leaders that Tawde was coming with cash of Rs. 5 crore to distribute to political workers, on which the BVA activists waylaid Tawde and did not allow him to get out of the hotel for hours before the FIR was registered.
However, Tawde later refuted the charges and said, he had come to meet party workers to tell them about the nitty gritty at the polling tables. But, the rule says, no outside leaders should stay once the election campaign ends.
*Senior journalist
