Maharashtra Lok Sabha Election Results: LS win wasn’t as easy as BJP expected

The Lok Sabha election did not prove to be the cakewalk that the BJP and its allies expected it to be In fact after UP it is Maharashtra that has played a crucial role in hitting the brakes on the Narendra Modiled BJP juggernautAs the 288strong Maharashtra Assembly is expected to go to the polls around October 2024 it would be interesting to see whether the sympathy factor for the MVA continues or whether the Modi magic can be revived helping the current Mahayuvtiled government retain power in the stateMVAShiv Sena UBT NCP Sharadchandra Pawar and the Congress bagged 30 including one independentmdashCongress rebel from Sangli of the total 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra Such was the setback for the Mahayuvti in the state that the BJP Ajit Pawarled NCP and Chief Minister Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena put together couldnrsquot even reach a total tally of MPs in the state that the BJP alone had in 2019 In the last parliamentary polls the Maharashtra BJP won 23 seatsIn the past two Lok Sabha elections the NDA won most of the seats in Maharashtramdash42 seats in 2014 and 41 in 2019 But post the change in political equations in the statemdashthe split in the Shiv Sena and NCPmdashin 2024 the BJP managed to win just 11 seats taking its tally down by 12 seats as against 23 in 2019Political pundits and even the Ajit Pawarled NCP camp leader Chhagan Bhujbal had on several occasions stated that there was huge sympathy for Uddhav Thackeray and Pawar Sr on the groundNo wonder then that during the parliamentary poll campaign both Uddhav Thackeray UBT and Sharad Pawar NCP SP often alluded to the split being engineered in their respective parties allegedly at the behest of the BJP And the impact could well be seen in the results as Maharashtra voters leaned towards sympathy over Modi MagicTripleengine SarkarIn fact such was the dent to the Mahayuti especially for the BJP that of the six Union ministers from the incumbent BJP government only threemdashNitin Gadkari Piyush Goyal and Narayan Ranemdashwon the election Bharati Pawar Raosaheb Danve and Kapil Patil didnrsquot make itIf the parliamentary elections are being seen as a dress rehearsal for the state Assembly elections then the big challenge before the lsquotripleengine sarkarrsquo would be to retain power in the state as MVA leaders could once again try to latch on to the sympathy factor for the state pollsIn the 2019 Assembly polls though the BJP had emerged as the largest party with 105 seats it fell short of reaching a majority Shiv Sena had won 56 seats two more than the Nationalist Congress Party Congress had bagged 44 seatsThe situation is no longer the same as the BJPShiv Sena alliance had contested against the CongressNCP In 2022 the Shiv Sena split into two factions with Eknath Shinde leading rebel MLAs to join hands with the BJP Shinde was made the CM despite BJP having more MLAs Last year NCP was divided with Ajit Pawar too joining the BJPShinde camp The trio later started being referred to as tripleengine sarkarAssembly poll advantageHowever the advantage for MVA will be a continuation of the sympathy factor and most importantly whether Congress NCP Sharad Pawar camp and Shiv Sena UBT stay united for the state polls and ensure smooth distribution of Assembly ticketsMany experts feel that the Assembly polls would be much harder than the general polls ldquoFor Lok Sabha Modi was the centre of the campaign and other issues like employment development work who the candidate is and which party heshe belongs to was secondary Hence during the campaign the PM and other saffron leaders used the appealmdashevery vote to your candidate means a vote for Modi But during the Assembly polls this will not be the case The polls will be contested on local and state issues This may lead to a further intensified battle between the two campsmdashone trying to retain power and the other trying to overthrow the existing governmentrdquo a political analyst said while speaking to middayHowever this doesnrsquot mean it is game over for the Mahayuti The tripleengine sarkar still stands a good chance as it has three to four months to take stock of the situation and implement damage control to regain the confidence of Maharashtrarsquos voters and ensure it retains power in the stateAjit Pawar has managed to win merely one seat despite contesting five seats four for NCP and one for RSP The Shinde camp contested 15 of which they managed to win six seats Both factions of the Shiv Sena were contesting against each other on 13 seats While the NCP factions which were competing against each other in two seats and Ajit Pawar lost to Pawar Sr candidatesWith such a performance along with the BJP it is the alliesmdashShinde and Pawar Jrmdashwho will have to do more and something different to improve its performance for the assembly polls as voters have not endorsed the split which both the leaders had engineered in their respective partiesIn Mumbai the MVA bagged four of the total six seats with BJP and the Shinde camp winning one seat each The Mahayuti lost five seats despite the Raj Thackerayled MNS extending unconditional support to Prime Minister Narendra ModiIssues unresolvedBesides issues related to farm produce farmersrsquo condition crop loss infrastructure employment and the Maratha reservation factor will be one thing that will need to be closely watchedManoj Jarange Patil who started the Maratha movement with much fanfare has threatened to field candidates in all the 288 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly seats if the ldquosagesoyarerdquo notification to get reservations for the community under the OBC category is not implemented as assured to him by the current Mahayuti governmentNot only Jarange if Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi VBA inks a poll pact equations are likely to change drastically Earlier VBA founder president Prakash Ambedkar had sought an alliance with Patil for the parliamentary polls but it did not materialiseBesides all these factors one thing that needs to be addressed on priority is the infighting within the party especially over the issue of loyal cadre been neglected and ldquooutsidersrdquo being given importance over them Though this is not spoken about openly within the power corridors it is the subject that has been discussed among many of the BJP rank and file during candid communication among themselves48No of parliamentary seats in state