BJP waters down Maharashtra farm distress

MUMBAI: Despite an acute farm crisis, the massive Maratha quota stir and Dalit-Maratha tensions, Maharashtra’s voters stood steadfastly by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine, giving it 41 of the 48 seats in the state and playing a key role in the return of the Modi government. Congress came up with its worst performance ever in the region of its birth, winning just one seat, and NCP just about held on to its previous 4-seat tally, while AIMIM made its successful LS debut from the state by winning the Aurangabad seat.
The saffron allies together and individually won the same number of seats they had in 2014, BJP bagging 23 and Sena 18 (one more seat in 2014 was won by a smaller ally, farm leader Raju Shetti). Ditto with NCP, which had the poor consolation that an independent backed by it too captured one constituency (Amravati).
But Congress had nothing to feel good about. It had won 2 seats last time, and this time’s sole winner (from Chandrapur) is an ex-Sena legislator Suresh Dhanorkar, who joined the party just before the polls.
The BJP-Sena combine made a clean sweep in Mumbai, winning all 6 seats. The rout across the state raises serious questions for Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP while brightening the BJP-Sena’s prospects for the October assembly elections and strengthening CM Devendra Fadnavis’s claim over the top post.
Among the veterans trounced were ex-CM and state Congress chief Ashok Chavan from Nanded, a family stronghold, and ex-Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde from hometown Solapur. Two Union ministers — Hansraj Ahir (BJP) and Anant Geete (Sena) — too were defeated, as were Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Parth and actor Urmila Matondkar (Congress).
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat and Congress-NCP “turncoat” Sujay Vikhe Patil were elected from Nagpur, Pune and Ahmednagar, respectively, while the victory of MIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel against four-term Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire came as a surprise.
Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, who had formed the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi with MIM, lost both seats he was contesting from — Solapur and Akola. However, Ashok Chavan alleged that VBA had damaged Congress prospects in 11 seats.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s high-profile and highdecibel campaign against PM Modi and the BJP too failed miserably, with hardly any Congress-NCP candidates benefiting, including in Mumbai.
BJP and Sena made serious inroads in western Maharashtra, winning 5 and 4 seats,
respectively, of the total 12 there. The other three went to NCP whose dominance of the sugar belt, already shaken in 2014, looks even weaker now.
Uddhav Thackeray’s lastminute decision to make amends with BJP and join hands with the Modi-Shah combine has benefited Sena in a big way. And Fadnavis, in particular, has emerged much stronger. The rapprochement with Uddhav, the Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver scheme, the Jalyukt Shivar irrigation scheme and the move to bring in reservation for Marathas in jobs and education and at the same time pacify the Dalit community over key issues all worked for Fadnavis.