Maha victory: On the Mahayuti and the Maharashtra election result
Welfare schemes and identity politics propelled the BJP to power
The alliance of the BJP, the NCP Ajit Pawar faction and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction — the Mahayuti — has scored a comprehensive victory in the Maharashtra Assembly election. The alliance got nearly 50% of the vote share; in the Konkan, North Maharashtra and western Maharashtra regions, its vote share crossed the halfway mark. While the Mahayuti increased its vote share across all regions, the Maha Vikas Aghadi — an alliance of the Congress, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray faction and Sharad Pawar’s NCP — saw its support decline across the State. The BJP alone got 132 seats, which is nearly a majority in the 288-strong Assembly, and the tally of the alliance is nearly five times that of the MVA which was limited to 50 seats for all its partners combined. The Maharashtra outcome settles several questions and opens new ones for all the players concerned, and for democracy and pluralism. The Maharashtra victory, close on the heels of that in Haryana, has restored the BJP’s dominance, which appeared shaken by the outcome of the 2024 general election. The party has no immediate challenger as it has managed to mobilise religious, regional, caste and class sentiments in its favour, decimating opponents and rendering its partners irrelevant. Whoever becomes the Chief Minister, the dynamics of the alliance has been decisively transformed in the BJP’s favour.
The victory in Maharashtra will reinforce the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the BJP, notwithstanding the party’s loss in Jharkhand. The marginal gains made by the Congress in the general election were not indicative of any substantive turn in politics, and the party is at a loss yet again. The Congress’s clamour for a caste census and its line about the Constitution being in danger were effectively countered by the BJP. The BJP’s call for Hindu consolidation had more takers, and it could paint the MVA as a platform of dominant Marathas and for Muslim appeasement. Welfare schemes, particularly cash doles for women, also worked in the Mahayuti’s favour. Uddhav Thackeray has been harshly punished by the electorate for splitting with the BJP and aligning with the Congress and NCP. Sharad Pawar’s political base has been eroded and his party is staring at an uncertain future. Maharashtra’s provincial politics has yielded to the BJP’s overarching Hindutva platform, which also has a strand of Maratha language pride and a regional iconography, for instance, in the invocation of Shivaji and V.D. Savarkar. The BJP needs to show wisdom and statesmanship in this moment of triumph.