Maharashtra Latest News: The announcement for the Maharashtra Assembly elections is likely to come in September. After that, it will become clear when and in how many phases the elections will be held. However, the Mahayuti Party and the Maha Vikas Aghadi Party have already started preparing for the elections even before then. Maha Vikas Aghadi Party leaders are confident that “we will win 200 seats”. After winning 30 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Maha Vikas Aghadi Party’s confidence has soared. Meanwhile, the Mahayuti Party has learnt lessons from its defeat in Maharashtra (2024 Assembly elections) and is preparing to win the elections. With all these scenarios now becoming a reality, what concrete challenges does the Mahayuti Party in Maharashtra face? Let us find out.
Commercial face: Not yet revealed
Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, nationalist Sharad Chandra Pawar and Indian National Congress make up the Mahavikas Aghadi Party. The three parties have expressed confidence of winning the Maharashtra Assembly as well, as they have 30 seats in the state. There are also rumours that Uddhav Thackeray may lead the Mahavikas Aghadi Party as Chief Minister. Indian National Congress has won 13 seats in the Indian National Congress. Clearly, this trust has been built. The Mahayuti Party and the BJP have not revealed their faces. It has been announced that Eknath Shinde will lead the Mahayuti Party during the elections. But what happens after that? It is unclear for now. It will probably be in the Mahavikas Aghadi Party’s favour.
Public sympathy for two veteran leaders
Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray are a bigger threat to the BJP than the Indian National Congress in the state. The fact that the parties of these two veteran leaders are divided is a big factor in this. As a result, the public sympathized with both leaders. A glimpse of this was witnessed in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Ajit Pawar thought he would win in Baramati, but he was wrong. Baramati went in favour of Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule was elected MP again. Uddhav Thackeray’s repeated statement in his speech that “My father, my party and Dhanushyaban have all been stolen” further increased Sule’s sympathy. This time Mahayuthi may have to bear the consequences. There is a possibility that this will happen.
Ajit Pawar’s failure
Both the ruling Shiv Sena and the BJP were unhappy with Ajit Pawar, the second Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, joining the grand alliance. The Congress NCP has two mandates. Sharad and Ajit Pawar also contested in the Indian Lok Sabha. However, Sharad Pawar seems to be well received by the public. While talking about the developments, Ajit Pawar mentioned that Sharad Pawar adopted a different approach during his tenure. However, in the Indian Lok Sabha elections, Ajit Pawar’s NCP could only win one seat. Even in the grand alliance, Ajit Pawar’s health is not very good at present. It seems that Ajit Pawar could not live up to the expectations brought by the Mahayuti. Moreover, there was a faction within the BJP that thought that Eknath Shinde’s entry was inevitable. This particular faction, which still exists today, was not happy with Ajit Pawar’s entry into the Mahayuti and subsequent consolidation of power.
Raj Thackeray: Mystery Cards
During the Gudi Padwa event, MNS president Raj Thackeray declared, “I support Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister of the country.” This was a bit of an enigmatic role. However, after the results of the Lok Sabha elections, Raj Thackeray remained silent. His silence was significant at the time, but nobody noticed it. Moreover, no invitation was sent to Raj Thackeray, who wholeheartedly supported Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Whether to stop all this or to summon the Congress into a grand alliance, Raj Thackeray raised the slogan of self-reliance. “We will see later whether we will be with them or not,” Raj Thackeray said about Mahayuthi. He further added, “We are going to contest 225 to 250 seats.” Mahayuthi will have a headache as a result of Raj Thackeray’s announcement.
The Maratha Factor and Manoj Jalanji
Manoj Jarange has not only taken up the Maratha reservation issue but has expanded it by taking it to the entire state of Maharashtra. He also gave an ultimatum to the government, which is now over. Though the government is calm now, it will decide in the next few days whether to launch a strong campaign in the elections. Two days ago, Jarange had asked the Maratha community to withdraw all 288 candidates if reservation was not granted. In the last one and a half years, the Maratha reservation issue has become more and more complicated. In both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the ‘Maratha factor’ will be felt if the grand coalition government fails to resolve the issue and drags it out till the next elections.
Seat sharing method and appropriate timing
Mahayuti leaders are seen quietly and publicly stating that the reason for the defeat was the late nomination of candidates in some Lok Sabha seats. Of the 288 seats, how many will the BJP contest and how many will Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena contest? And how many will Ajit Pawar’s NCP contest? This will be a very important question to watch. If the BJP contests 150 seats, that leaves 138. Even if evenly distributed, the Shiv Sena and NCP will have 60 seats each and the remaining 18 seats will go to alliance parties. To win seats, the BJP needs to maintain the support of its alliance parties and satisfy the NCP and Shiv Sena. But this time too, as in the Lok Sabha elections, the Mahayuti Party may suffer if it does not make a quick decision.
“Vote Reduction” and Prakash Ambedkar
In the Indian Lok Sabha elections, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar has taken a position in favour of the Mahavikas Aghadi Party. Prakash Ambedkar has been at the forefront of pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constitutional reform pledge. In the Indian Lok Sabha elections, no Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi MP was elected from Maharashtra. However, whoever fielded it, it managed to eat into the Mahayuti Party’s votes. In the Legislative Assembly, if Prakash Ambedkar sticks to the Mahavikas Aghadi Party and campaigns in the same way, he can win seats. In areas where he is unable to secure seats, his candidates are likely to absorb the votes of the Grand Alliance and the BJP.
The BJP needs Mahayuti’s help to overcome all these obstacles and reach the magic figure of 145. Unless all Mahayuti’s state legislators overcome these significant challenges or work in that direction, Mahayuti’s Chief Minister will not be re-elected in Maharashtra. Contrary to what the Grand Alliance thinks, this election will not be easy. The people also know that the plans for catchphrases like “Ladka Bhau”, “Ladki Bahin” etc were made in anticipation of the elections.
What action plan will the three parties in the grand coalition adopt in the future? How will they win the fight against these challenges? It will be interesting to see.
