Ever since the Maha Vikas Aghadi government came to power, Uddhav Thackeray was humiliated in every way; he had to vacate his chair after crossing the extreme limits of scheming against him. Amidst many insults and allegations, he started reaching out to the people and won their trust. Seeing today’s results, it is difficult to say whether the BJP was able to stay in power because of the Shiv Sena or whether the Shiv Sena was in power because of the BJP. Today, Uddhav has proved that he can play his own game in his own capacity, and the people of Maharashtra love the Thackeray family very much.
On the other hand, Sharad Pawar, the Maratha strongman and the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP), knows the nerves of Maharashtra politics. He can stump foes as well as friends. His nephew, Ajit Pawar, the No. 2 in the party, broke away and joined the BJP. He took several leaders, the name of the party and also its logo and betrayed Sharad Pawar for power but Pawar gave him a clear message in this election, not to mess with him. Ajit Pawar’s NCP could hardly make any mark. His wife, too, lost elections against Supriya Sule. Congress too did pretty well; in a nutshell, Maha Vikas Agadhi bounced back on their own strength.
Infidelity politics did not go well with Maharashtra voters. Breaking regional parties and joining hands with corrupt leaders was shocking for BJP voters. The biggest mistake of the BJP was that they were giving shelter to every corrupt person; morality had become a joke for them. The BJP took all corrupt people from other parties and it led to another corrupt party. The ideology of the party got diluted and these corrupt people will never change but the BJP had to compromise for the sake of power. Most of the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are also corrupt, both internally and externally. They are accusing other opposition leaders.
The BJP has misused the government machinery and its IT cell a lot. To defame any leader or to defeat him in social life, the IT cell would go after him and the government machinery would be used to intimidate them. Out of fear of getting arrested or facing an ED inquiry, most of the corrupt leaders of other political parties joined hands with BJP and those leaders were given clean chits. The main motive of the Bharatiya Janata Party is to finish the opposition by taking their famous and popular leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party.
INDIA Bloc was leading towards one party rule and that is the rule of the Bhartiya Janta Party. Presently, more than 90% of political power throughout the country is in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has a huge majority in parliament and most of the Indian states are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party government. Still, with the greed of having the utmost majority, they entertained outsiders and ignored their own veteran leaders. Above all, anti-incumbency played a vital role in the 2024 elections.
The INDIA bloc comprises Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the Congress. MVA got 29 seats and Mahayuti got 19 seats. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 23 Lok Sabha seats in the state, its alliance partner Shiv Sena (which was then undivided) won 18 seats, the NCP (undivided) won four, and Congress and AIMIM each won a seat. An independent candidate won one seat. Maharashtra has witnessed several political shifts since 2014, when the BJP-led NDA alliance came to power. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 23 Lok Sabha seats in the state, and its alliance partner Shiv Sena (which was then undivided) won 18 seats. However, in 2022, a massive political crisis took over the state after Eknath Shinde, who was with Shiv Sena at the time, cross-voted for the BJP. Following this, Uddhav Thackeray removed Shinde from the post of Shiv Sena legislature party leader. Soon after, Shinde joined the BJP. In this election, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar both declined.
Till today, the BJP attacked Uddhav Thackeray, stating that whatever seats he won in 2014 were due to Modi waves, not his achievements or merits. He was brutally attacked by the BJP and its alliance parties. But they forgot to notice that the Shiv Sena (UBT) is Maharashtra’s regional party and people have immense faith in that family. No one can detach them from the soil. The BJP playing spoiler did not go well with voters. Today, the BJP has set a benchmark for being an unprincipled, power-hungry party, to which end justifies means. It has now stopped at the lowest level to win the election. Votes are being asked by the prime minister himself, using the Army’s name. The model code of conduct is violated, whether it is the Namo channel, highly objectionable statements by the UP chief minister and others or the use of the Army in any form.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Since INC was in power most of the time, we thought that INC MPs and MLAs were more corrupt than others. However, there are many advantages to remaining in shadow as well. The public eyes are always raised on the people in power, whereas the people in shadows can skip public attention and therefore, their deeds go unnoticed. It is unnecessary to specify that BJP leaders are NOT saints; they are also corrupt. Let this government continue for one more term and we will realise all the party leaders are equally rich or equally poor. Many of the existing leaders in the BJP are actually poached from INC. How did all of them become clean and honest nationalists? This election gave a befitting reply to the BJP by refusing their hate mongering, venom-spreading statements, and speeches; they don’t want to do Hindu/Muslim politics, and they are not willing to support the BJP’s arrogance and silent dictatorship. The BJP misused its powers in Maharashtra state too; that is the reason Mahayuti got the thumbs down this time.
