Mumbai: For the second time in under three years, a saffron wave has swept Maharashtra.
Not only did it underline the continued resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the most potent force in the state’s and country’s politics, it also signalled a rebound of the Shiv Sena, the other saffron party.
BMC election results: Here’s how Shiv Sena was jolted by a BJP comeback
Given Maharashtra civic polls results served another crushing blow to the electoral aspirations of the Congress, it begs the question: is politics in Maharashtra acquiring a new narrative sans Congress? At the least a considerably diminished Congress?
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Personally, the Mahahashtra municipal election results is a shot in the arm for chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had risked all by opting to abandon the alliance with the Shiv Sena. He overcame personal attacks from Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar and successfully focused the electoral narrative on the promise of development and good governance.
In ten municipal corporations, the BJP raised its tally to 580 seats (of the total 1268) from only 207 in 2012. More impressive was its penetration of hitherto bastions of the Congress and the NCP in rural Maharashtra, winning in the district polls in Latur and Sangli.
“He fought this election single-handedly and the BJP’s performance strengthens his position. His rivals within the BJP were keen to see him fail but that has not happened,” said Deepak Pawar, professor of political science at Mumbai University.
Since there is a hung verdict in some of the corporations, including in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election results, which governs Mumbai, the two saffron parties, one time allies turned rivals, are in a piquant situation. Should they bury the hatchet and restore stability to the state government—the Shiv Sena was threatening to exit, which would reduce the Fadnavis government to a minority—and form the corporations through a coalition? Neither party was willing to address this piquant housekeeping challenge immediately.
BMC election results showed that while Shiv Sena won 84 seats and the BJP 82 seats, both were well short of the majority mark of 114. However, by evening, both claimed the first right to take charge of the BMC and appoint the mayor.
Fadnavis said the BJP core committee will have to take the call. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray simply said Mumbai will have its next mayor from the Sena only.
Fadnavis attributed the election results as an endorsement by the people of “the policies of development and transparency of Prime Minister Modi and also supported his fight against corruption”.
“We fought only 195 seats and won 81. There are at least 20 seats where we lost by a very narrow margin. Mumbai has endorsed our politics,” he added.
For Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray, the fact that it emerged the single largest party in Mumbai and won Thane City on its own was a small solace. It had looked forward to humiliating the BJP, with whom it has had a bitter parting of ways. Initial counting trends had in fact suggested a runaway win for the Shiv Sena; however, in the final rounds of counting, the BJP staged a remarkable recovery and was shy of the Sena tally by only two seats.
The rival Sena party, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, suffered a humiliating defeat winning only 17 of the 1,268 seats in the Maharashtra municipal elections.
Uddhav Thackeray, who emerged before the press with his wife Rashmi and son Aditya Thackeray, much after Fadnavis had spoken to the media, said the Shiv Sena had won despite “its rivals deploying money power and great many resources”. Asked if he was surprised by the BJP’s good show, Thackeray counter questioned saying how could the BJP’s performance be called a “success”.
“We are number one party Mumbai,” he said.
According to Mumbai University professor Pawar, a compromise with the BJP will not be easy for the Shiv Sena to undertake. “For Uddhav Thackeray, the message in this mandate is that he still needs to imagine life without the BJP in Maharashtra because Shiv Sena will have credibility only if it goes its own way,” he said.
