Maharashtra Assembly - BJP Likely To Taste Its Own Bitter Medicine

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is acting too clever by half in Maharashtra. It thought it would have a field day after splitting the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

However, now the factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP are projecting themselves as being equal to the BJP. They are asking for their pound of flesh in the seat sharing formula for the coming state Assembly polls.

The Shiv Sena-Shinde group leader Ramdas Kadam has publically demanded that the BJP leave 100 seats for the party. The NCP-Ajit group leader Chhagan Bhujbal has claimed 90 seats. The strength of the Maharashtra assembly is 288.

If the Shinde Sena and Ajit’s NCP succeed in getting 190 seats together then the BJP will have only 98 seats left to contest from. Besides, it is also luring Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to ally with the ruling front called Maha Yuti (MY) against the Opposition (Congress, Shiv Sena, NCP) Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). However, in such a situation who will leave seats for the MNS?

After receiving a major jolt in the Lok Sabha elections Eknath Shinde’s party has blamed the BJP for its slogan “‘abki baar 400 Paar’ (this time cross 400),” delayed the seat sharing exercise and an early’ entry of the Ajit’s NCP in the government, the factors that led to the debacle.

On the other hand, Ajit Pawar’s party which has placed to a third position in the Maha Yuti after winning only one Lok Sabha seat, is accusing the ruling partners of not working wholeheartedly in the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP workers and even the Sangh Parivar view the pre poll alliance and the power sharing with Ajit Pawar’s NCP is seen not only as bad chemistry but also as bad strategy. He is seen as a liability. His failure to win the Baramati Lok Sabha seat has further damaged his image in the state.

If the BJP has to fight openly with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, expected to be held in October-November this year, it will also have to spend its energy to contain the growing ambition of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP and confine them to be marginal players in the state.

Their growth will be equally harmful to the BJP in the state. The BJP had split Uddhav’s Shiv Sena because he was refusing to play second fiddle to the BJP. Sharad Pawar’s united NCP was a stumbling block in the BJP’s attempt to make inroads in western Maharashtra and the Maratha vote bank.

Now, the BJP cannot fight simultaneously with the four regional parties and the Congress. Besides, its trump card Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ‘Chanakya’ Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been rejected by the Maharashtra voters.

Moreover, the BJP cannot project the chief ministerial face of the Maha Yuti. This is because such a move would be counter-productive.

Eknath Shinde cannot be acceptable to the BJP and Ajit’s NCP as a CM face for a second time, and the BJP does not have a face at all. Ajit Pawar has now become a marginal player in the state. The BJP wants to contest a large number of assembly seats and form the next government on its own.

Ramdas Kadam has said that the Shinde’s Shiv Sena would have won 13-14 Lok Sabha seats of the total 15 it contested, had the BJP not interfered in the Shinde Sena and allowed to announce the candidates two months before the polls.

The Shinde Sena’s candidates lost Nashik,Hingoli and Yavatmal-Washim seats because of the BJP which had opposed the re-nomination of the sitting MPs.

While Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena won Thane, Kalyan, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Hatkanangale, Maval and Mumbai North West,Ajit Pawr’s NCP won only one seat and that is Raigad.

The BJP drew a blank in the Marathwada region, it won only two seats, Nagpur and Akola, in the Vidarbha region and its other seats are: Mumbai North, Palghar, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Satara, Pune, Raver and Jalgaon.