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#JharkhandAssemblyPolls : JMM-Cong Topple BJP

December 23, 2019

The entire state of Jharkhand is currently in the state of jubilation with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress (INC) combine coming out winners in the Jharkhand Assembly elections. While the combine has won 48 seats, whereas the BJP has won 23 seats, the AJSUP won 3, JVM (P) won 3 and RJD won 3 seats. As it appears, JMM’s Hemant Soren is tipped to be the Chief Minister of the state. Any party needs to get 41 seats to form government in the state. The election in Jharkhand was held in five phases between November 30 and December 20.

After BJP’s defeat in Jharkhand NCP chief Sharad Pawar while addressing the media at his residence Silver Oak said, “The result of Jharkhand Assembly Polls that has come today clearly states that people are with non-BJP parties. After Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, people have decided to keep BJP away from power in Jharkhand also.”

But till the final results were declared there was a state of ups and downs between the BJP and the INC+ combine. It was excitement that ran all through all party functionaries.

While the JMM-led pre-poll alliance was leading on more seats, the BJP claimed that it was still the single largest party in the country. On his part, Chief Minister Raghubar Das had gone on record and declared that the fight was still close in several seats. “The BJP will form the government in the state,” he stated.

On the other hand, the Congress claimed that since theirs was a pre-poll alliance with JMM and the RJD, they should first to get a chance to stake claim to power.

Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut also hit out at the BJP, saying tribals and the poor people of Jharkhand have rejected the Modi- Shah led party.

From the recent happenings, it is clear that this trend of variation in voter behaviour is not just limited to Jharkhand. A similar case took place in states like Maharashtra and Haryana where the BJP either loss power or had to form an alliance to be in power.

In Maharashtra, BJP had contested both the Lok Sabha as well as the state elections in alliance with the Shiv Sena. While the Narendra Modi-led party had secured 53 per cent of the votes in the constituencies that it had contested in the general elections, this was reduced to 45 per cent during the assembly polls.

This brought its tally in the state from 122 in 2014 to 105 this time around. The party eventually failed to form the government in the state after its ally Shiv Sena broke the alliance to form a government led by its chief Uddhav Thackerey with the support of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.

Similarly, BJP had registered a landslide victory in Haryana during the Lok Sabha elections in May where it won all the 10 seats available in the state. In a show of absolute dominance, the party secured an impressive 58 per cent of the total vote-share.

However, this was not the case during the assembly elections in the northern state in October this year. The saffron party failed to secure a majority on its own in the 90-member strong house as its vote-share plummeted more than 20 percentage points to 36 per cent. After falling short of its own lofty targets, the BJP had to offer the Deputy Chief Minister’s post to leader of rival party Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) Dushyant Chautala to form the government in Haryana. In 2018, BJP also lost the Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan assembly polls. All these states were known as BJP’s bastion. With BJP’s loss in Jharkhand the party has been reduced to 40 per cent Indian states as compared to 71 per cent back in December 2017. The Jharkhand Assembly poll loss is being seen as a major setback for the BJP as has come after the Citizenship Amendment Act and few weeks after the Supreme Court had issued a verdict clearing the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

By Ashish Mitra

Maharashtra and its ongoing politics – Part II

Vaidehi Taman

December 23, 2019

Following disputes between NCP president Sharad Pawar and the INC president Sonia Gandhi, the state’s political status quo was upset when Pawar defected from the INC which was perceived as the vehicle of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, to form the Nationalist Congress Party. This offshoot of the Congress party is nevertheless dominated by the Maratha community. The Shiv Sena was formed in the 1960s by Balasaheb Thackeray, a cartoonist and journalist to advocate and agitate for the interests of Marathi people in Mumbai. Over the following decades, Shiv Sena slowly grew and took over the then Bombay Municipal Corporation in the 1980s. The original base of the party was among the lower middle and working class Marathi people in Mumbai and the surrounding urban areas, the leadership of the party came from educated people. However, since 1990s there has been dada-ization of the party.

By the number of Marathas elected on a Shiv Sena ticket in the last few elections, the party is emerging as another Maratha party. The BJP is closely related to the RSS and is part of the Sangh Parivar. The party originally derived its support from the urban upper castes such as Brahmins and non-Maharashtrians. In recent years, the party has been able to penetrate the Maratha community by fielding Maratha candidates in elections. The Shiv Sena–BJP coalition came to power at the state level in 1995 which was a blow to the INC. In 2006, a split within Shiv Sena emerged when Bal Thackeray anointed his son Uddhav Thackeray as his successor over his nephew Raj Thackeray. Raj then left the party and formed a new outfit called the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Raj Thackeray, like his uncle, has also tried to win support from the Marathi community by embracing anti-immigrant sentiment in Maharashtra for instance against Biharis. After the Maratha–Kunbi, the Mahars are numerically the second largest community. Most of the Mahars are followers of Buddhism and fall under the Scheduled Caste (SC) group. Since the time of B. R. Ambedkar, the Mahar community has supported various factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI).

There are 25 seats reserved for the SC. Parties such as NCP, BJP and the Congress field candidates from other Hindu SC groups like Mang and Chambhar for the reserved seats to thwart the candidates of the RPI. Maharashtra is the third biggest state in India in terms of area with a total area of 307,713 sq km which is as big as the country Oman is! Maharashtra is the second most populous state in India with a total population of 11.23 crore which is equivalent to the population of Mexico. Maharashtra ranks first in terms of the size of the economy with nominal GDP equal to $400 billion which is equivalent to the size of the economy of Iran. Maharashtra is located in the western region of India which shares its border with the state of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka and Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The financial capital of India, Mumbai and the geographic center of India, Nagpur, are both located in the state. Mumbai that is the most populous city in Maharashtra which is also the most populous city in India is also the 6th most populous city in the world. Maharashtra is drained by the river Godavari which is referred to as the Dakshin Ganga, the rivers such as Krishna, Koyana, Tapi, Penganga, Wainganga are the other prominent rivers. Maharashtra is one of the best tourist destinations in the country which has – Five World Heritage Sites, a long stretch of Western Ghats – one of the four biodiversity hotspots, six Tiger reserves, six national parks and so on.

The empire under Shivaji Maharaj in 1674 was the champions of Hinduism in the face of Islamic aggression by the Mughal Empire and ruled much of the subcontinent for over a century after defeating them. Sharad Pawar, who had been a towering figure in Maharashtrian and national politics, belongs to this group. The state’s political status quo was upset when Pawar defected from the INC, which was perceived as the vehicle of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to form the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP in 1999. This followed disputes between Pawar and the INC president Sonia Gandhi. This offshoot of the Congress party was nevertheless dominated again by the Maratha community. And NCP has formed alliances with Congress in the UPA government. A number of senior leaders of the party such as Sharad Pawar, Ganesh Naik and DY Patil have promoted the political careers of their respective family members but since NCP’s leadership mainly came from educated Marathas, it is relatively free from caste and dynasty politics in comparison to other political parties.

The Shiv Sena gradually moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to one supporting a broader Hindu Nationalist agenda. The original base of the party was lower middle-and working-class Marathi people in Mumbai and surrounding urban areas. In the last 30 years, however, Shiv Sena and the BJP began gaining a foothold in the state of Maharashtra especially in the rural areas hit by drought and unemployment. The Shiv Sena and the BJP came into power at the state level in 1995 which was a big blow to the INC. The BJP is closely related to the RSS and is part of the Sangh Parivar, originally deriving its support from the urban “upper caste” Gujarati’s and Marwari’s. Shiv Sena’s leaders mostly came from the so-called “high castes” i.e. Brahmins, CKPs and Pathare Prabhus. But in the recent years, the party has been able to penetrate the Maratha group by fielding Maratha candidates in elections.

To summarize, there isn’t much of an ideological difference between different political parties in Maharashtra. Hindutva is a strong factor but meat and fish are considered a part of Maharashtrian cuisine and Marathi politicians have frequently spewed vitriol against the Jain community for attempts to impose vegetarianism in their premises. The main factor of politics of Maharashtra is the Maratha community which accounts for 31 per cent of the state’s population. They dominate the cooperative institutions and with the resultant economic power control politics from the village level up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats. Of the 18 chief Ministers so far, as many as 10 (55 per cent) have been Marathas. As of December 2016, of the 366 MLAs combined (Legislative Assembly has 288 MLAs and Legislative Council has 78 MLAs) 169 are Marathas (46 per cent).

(With inputs from various agencies)

Also read: Maharashtra and its ongoing politics – Part I

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

Sena supporters beat up Wadala man, shave off his head for FB comment on Maharashtra CM

Web Team

December 23, 2019

A 30-year-old man from Wadala in Mumbai was thrashed allegedly by Shiv Sena supporters after he posted a derogatory comment about Sena supremo and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray centering on the December 15 police action on Jamia Millia Islamia students, police said on Monday.

On December 17, the CM had said, “The way the police opened fire on students by forcefully entering (JMI) compound, it appeared like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.”

The police said, the man uploaded his post on December 19 from his Facebook account which he operates by the name of ‘Rahul Tiwari’. However, the police identified him as Hiramani Tiwari.

According to the police, the post berated Uddhav for comparing the police action on JMI students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act with the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Tiwari who had deleted the post after he got threats from some people, however said on Sunday that the Sena functionaries Samadhan Jukdeo and one Prakash Hasbe beat him up and shaved his head outside his Shanti Nagar residence.

After that, the Wadala TT police issued a notice under Section 149 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to both the sides. The CrPC’s Section 149 is a legal tool given to police to prevent the commission of a cognisable offence.

Tiwari told to police, “I want the police to take action against these Sena men. I was just airing my views.”

A police official said that Tiwari and the Sainiks who were accused of beating him up, had reached a compromise and added that a case would be taken if they receive a complaint. Tiwari’s statement was being recorded, he added.

Christmas crib represents how Jesus was born

Jayanthy Subramaniam

December 23, 2019

Christmas celebrations are never complete without a Christmas crib. Also referred to as Nativity Scene or Manger Scene, Christmas crib represents how Jesus was born. Christmas crib exhibits figures that represent infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband Joseph. There are various other characters that are part of the Christmas crib. These characters include shepherds, sheep and angels. As described in the ‘Gospel of Luke’, all these characters are displayed near the manger in a barn (or cave) which is projected to accommodate farm animals. A donkey and an ox are also a part of this scene and Magi and their camels are also included. These characters are described in the ‘Gospel of Matthew’. However, there are various cultures which add characters that may or may not be Biblical.

The celebration for Christmas is on and as a Mumbaikar I enjoy the cosmopolitan atmosphere here. In the past, I was able to make my presence felt on the eve of Christmas by making an extensive coverage of the events before and after the festival. I was very much impressed by crib set up in Sanpada Jubilee Church and I was able to get a close look and take a snap for posting in facebook and for sending it to some news dailies across the country. One of the newspaper in Pune selected my photo of the crib as one of the best and I feel proud to be an Indian. I always believe and work for unity in diversity of the country and participated in the memorable events of last year’s Christmas and working for doing an exclusive coverage this year also in a big way.

Putting up the crib is the most exciting aspect of Christmas. As children we would use all our creativity and imagination to depict Christ’s birth. Even today 12 days before the festival we sow grains like ragi and wheat which would grow into tiny crops that are then used to decorate the crib. To make mountains we would like to use brown paper and dry hay to make the set look like a stable. Once the crib is set we light ‘kuthu vilakku’ instead of candles on Christmas Day. Our parents always made sure that we used less paper to decorate the crib and encouraged us to use fresh flowers instead.

It’s a family tradition to put up the crib together. Each year I used to bring down the box that has all the decorations and my grandson takes keen interest to decorate and bring out the best in Christmas tree and this year he plans to make a crib. The tree is where we try and experiment more and use newer ornaments and serial light and complete with most attractive decorations collected and purchased for the very purpose. The crib building is a creative activity and you can keep in mind the history and bring out the best with your imagination.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Letters to the Editor: 23 December, 2019

Web Team

December 23, 2019

Shah and Modi dividing the country

Today, India is being divided on the basis of religion. We have never faced this kind of problem during the Congress regime. Amit Shah and Narendra Modi are only dividing country on the basis of one’s religion. Every citizen of this country has the right to voice their opinion whether Modi likes it or not.

Jubel D’Cruz

Don’t underestimate the power of youth

The police is acting in a wholly undemocratic and authoritarian manner by preventing the groups of college students from holding a peaceful protest against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act and even detaining some of them without any provocation. While the police contend that the requisite permission was not granted for the protest, the students argue that there was no prohibitory order like Section 144 in force to prevent a group of people from assembling peacefully. The police has asserted that it’s his duty to ensure that the country runs peacefully. The police’s assertion is flawed because while it is his duty to maintain law and order in the city, it is every citizen’s constitutional right to protest against what she sees as unjust or unconstitutional. Such selective application of one’s sense of duty may give rise to suspicion that the police is acting as per the convenience of the ruling BJP. Student movements have changed the course of history across the world and in India, where it has roots in the freedom struggle. The police would be well advised not to stoke fire by displaying highhandedness against them. It should not underestimate the power of the youth.

Seraj Ali

Protest is basic right of every Indian citizen

Delhi police brutally lathi charged fired inside the university campus of Jamia Millia Islamia. This is not the way to deal with democratic protests. Peaceful protest is basic right of every Indian citizen.

Mahmudul Hasan

A timely and befitting speech

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi was timely and significant as it was delivered at a time when pseudo factions, parties and leaders misinterpreted the Citizenship (Amendment Act) and misguided a minority community against the government. The PM has made it crystal clear in his speech that none in the Indian Muslim community would be affected by the Act nor is it going to divide the nation on the basis of religion. The very strong and thoughtful speech truly expressed the importance of the bill and at the same time really exposed the vested interest and selfish motives of many of the opposition leaders who like chameleons keep changing their attitude just for the sake of votes and for power. The PM’s appeal to maintain peace and harmony reveals his commitment and dedication to the nation and it’s people. The opposition would have been rattled seeing the mass support the PM received at the maidan and this is sure to cause sleepless nights in the days to come. These pseudo leaders in order to get the support of a certain community were hell bent to get a cause to attack the government. They failed to stir the common man when the government passed the Triple Talaq bill, the abrogation of Article 370 and when the Ayodhya verdict was declared. And finally when CAA was passed it came as a lifer for them and gave them an opportunity to link it with religious sentiment. Though they did get a chance to divert and direct the innocent against the centre by misinterpreting the bill the speech by Modi undoubtedly is going to be the turning point as it has ripped open the hypocrisy of the pseudo leaders and it is sure to make the common man understand the real facts and repose their faith in the government.

M Pradyu

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

After raping, man smashes minor girl’s head by stone in Bhiwandi, arrested

Hema Singh

December 23, 2019

A 30-year-old man has been arrested for raping and killing a 7-year-old girl in Bhiwandi. According to Bhoiwada police, passersby upon noticing the body of a girl, informed about the same to the police and her relatives. The accused has been identified as Bharat Kumar Kori who shared a room with other labourers at Karivali village in Bhiwandi.

Police said that the incident took place on Saturday night when the girl was playing outside her house. At that time, her neighbor lured the girl with an ice cream and took her to an isolated place where he raped her and then stoned her to death.

Senior inspector of Bhoiwada police station K A Karpe said, the family member of the girl informed the police at 2 am on Saturday when they noticed that she was missing from around 9 pm when they failed to find her.

Initially, the police registered a case of kidnapping. However, on Sunday when the locals of the area found the girl’s body in the bushes which is around 50 to 60 meters away from her house, they informed the police. After that, on suspicion, the police arrested Kori who later confessed to the crime. Police said that the postmortem report confirmed that the girl was raped before her murder.

“He was afraid that the girl might give his name away as he knew the family well,” Karpe added. The police have booked the accused for rape and murder under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

Dharavi holds third protest rally against CAA and NRC in a peaceful manner

Web Team

December 23, 2019

If there can be protests against Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) all over India, how can Mumbai be left behind.

Just last week we saw two huge protests rallies in Mumbai, one in Bandra and the other at the August Kranti Maidan. On those lines, a huge protest rally took place at Dharavi on Sunday. Despite the numbers, the protest went off in a peaceful manner.The rally that got through at 2 pm calmly got over at 5.45pm. The police on their part had ensured this by asking the organisers to keep a way from unrest.

#Dharavi Mumbai.

?? OMG !!pic.twitter.com/5BEMGrfzwN

— Dilsedesh (@Dilsedesh) December 22, 2019

Averred Joint CP (L&O) Vinoy Choubey, “There was a sea of people at Dharavi but the protest was peaceful. Senior inspectors and the zonal DCP were in regular touch with the organisers even before the protest. We monitored the crowd using drones and CCTV surveillance from the control room. The protesters too co-operated with the Mumbai police to make it a peaceful protest.”

Additional Commissioner of Police (Central) region S Veeresh Prabhu said the crowd started gathering at the protest venue from 2 pm and stayed back till 5 pm.

He further continued, “The protest culminated at 5:45 pm and the crowd took nearly 30 minutes to disperse. We had been conducting regular meetings with several groups of people before the protest. We had appealed to them to conduct the protest peacefully and they have co-operated with us. The local groups at Dharavi also helped us by ensuring the protest was peaceful.”

BMC’s new drive, crushing illegal hawkers’

Hema Singh

December 22, 2019

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body of the country has introduced a new method to minimise traffic on the roads of Mumbai by crushing the handcarts of illegal hawkers. Earlier the Corporation used to return the handcarts to the vendors after imposing a fine. On Saturday, the BMC authorities seized more than 4000 illegal handcarts and crushed them with the help of JCB machines at the Antop Hill Warehouse ground.

Nikhil Desai, Activist, Action for good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI) said, “The carts which have been destroyed are national property. If the BMC wants to send a message to people that it is not going to tolerate the hawkers, then they have to destroy these carts. In Mumbai where people don’t have space to walk, in such a situation if hawkers carry on their business by using hand carts then it should not be allowed.”

“The Supreme Court had issued guidelines pertaining to segregating hawking and non-hawking zones. However, five years have passed and the guidelines are yet to be implemented. Every time changes are made into guidelines pertaining to eligibility of issuing identity cards to hawkers but they are not implemented.”

“90,000 hawkers have applied for hawking license. All the action taken by the BMC against hawkers is an eyewash. Hawking zones should be earmarked in the Development Plan of the city,” he added.

As we all have noticed that there are many places in the metropolis where the streets are full with such kinds of hawkers. There are some stations like Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Kandivali and many more where we can find such hawkers who sell goods on handcarts. They cover the roads with their wares. According to the BMC, the hawkers occupy these places to sell goods on roads and footpaths and these are a major reasons contributing to traffic jams.

RTI activist Anil Galgali said, “The BMC has taken a right step in evicting hawkers. This drive should be held at other areas of Mumbai too. The BMC must take strict action against hawkers as they return the next day after eviction drive. If ID cards are issued to approximately 15,000 hawkers then demarcated hawking zones must be created for them. The BMC should also think about rehabilitation of illegal hawkers.”

The civic body has also planned to issue ID cards or embossed cards to the hawkers so that they cannot transfer to someone else. As per a BMC report, they have listed down a number of eligible hawkers from the hawker registration drive. And the report also says that 1 lakh hawkers were found to be eligible. However, after verification, the list was chopped down to 15,379.

Coordinator of AGNI James John said, “Just demolishing handcarts will not help. BMC has done this to just show that they are working. Instead of randomly taking action on the hawkers, they should work on ward levels and ensure that the streets are it is ‘hawkers free’. If they really are serious about evicting the hawkers they should have done in it much better way. This is just an eyewash and Tamasha that the BMC is doing.”

According to a BMC officer, they have introduced this new bar-coded cards or embossed cards policy as this will make it easier for them to scan and verify all the details of the hawkers easily. It’s been reported that the civic body will mention the details like the hawker’s name on the ID cards, the commodity to be sold, location and the pitch number (one that identifies the hawker’s zone) that needs to be renewed every month.

Former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, “If there is proper crackdown on any illegal activity, I think that’s a great thing and we should encourage the BMC or any other government organization to stop such illegal activity.”

Talking about the illegal carts, the BMC has crushed 4,291 four-wheeler illegal handcarts that were seized from across the 26 civic wards in a special drive carried out last month. Earlier, the civic body had seized over 2,500 carts.

Reportedly, the drive that was initiated on November 16 continued for the next 15 days. Also a large numbers of such carts were impounded from the eastern and western suburbs.

As per the sources,the Corporation decided to crush the carts after it was found out that the method of imposing monetary fine on hawkers (for using illegal carts) ceased to have any effect as they were resuming business after paying the fine. The BMC will auction the scrap at a later date.

Activist Huzaifa Electricwala said, “Whatever decision the BMC and government takes a decision about demolition of carts of hawkers then should offer them substitute employment. If unemployment increases then crime rates will increase in the country. Shiv Sena is in power in BMC and running the government so they should ensure that that crime rates and unemployment doesn’t increase.”

Maharashtra and its ongoing politics – Part I

Vaidehi Taman

December 22, 2019

Maharashtrians are known to be of the Indo-Aryan race. Although they came into existence when the Maratha warriors of Shivaji Maharaj established the Maratha empire back in 1600s. While the majority population consists of Hindus due to the vast number of people migrating to Maharashtra is huge and hence the place is now divided by Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists and Jews. The mix of culture is not only seen by caste but also by taste, style and music that so many different people bring. In spite of so much of diversion, Marathi Manoos has its strong and different existence in Maharashtra politics. Many political parties are born in the name of son of the soil. Maharashtra was born on 1st May 1960. Behind the state’s formation, there was bloodstained history. Jawaharlal Nehru and Morarji Desai (then chief minister of Bombay state) were against making Bombay the capital of Marathi speaking state. “In January 1960, demonstrators were fired upon by the police at Flora Fountain in the capital city of Mumbai. Flora Fountain was subsequently renamed Hutatma Chowk or “Martyr’s Crossroad” in their memory.

It is estimated that in all, 105 people were shot by security forces during the period of agitation and at different places. Morarji Desai was later removed and replaced by Yashwantrao Chavan as a result of criticism related to this incident. Babasaheb Ambedkar argued for making Mumbai the capital of the Marathi state. Maharashtra politics has always been largely dominated by the Congress and NCP. In 55 years of its existence, there were only two Non-Congress/Congress-NCP governments till now. One was the BJP-SS government of 1995-99 and other was the Fadnavis government that ruled from 2014-19. Between 1963-1975, there was only one Chief Minister – Vasantrao Naik but from 1975-1995 there were as many as seven Chief Ministers serving total of 11 terms reflecting the instability.

The Right-wing party Shiv Sena standing for pro-Hindu, pro-Marathi ideology was formed in 1960 by Balasaheb Thackeray – other right-wing party in the country was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh which was formed in 1951. Though Shiv Sena’s main influence was Mumbai and it could not grow in the rural Maharashtra and thus could not form a government until 1995. One of the tallest figures in Maharashtra politics Sharad Pawar split from the Congress in 1999 and formed the Nationalist Congress Party whose main area of influence is Western Maharashtra. In 2014, the Lok Sabha elections when BJP+Shiv Sena won 42 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra, four of those six lost seats were won by NCP in their Western Maharashtra constituencies.

Many leaders of the NCP are also the leaders of Milk and Sugar Co-operatives which brought the prosperity in Western Maharashtra farmers. Below is the result of Assembly elections 2014. But always NCP’s bastion was Western Maharashtra while BJP is concentrated in Vidarbha and Central Maharashtra. Shiv Sena’s bastion is Mumbai and Konkan while INC is distributed evenly across the state. Because Vidarbha is BJP’s bastion and BJP supports formation of more states, it supports statehood to Vidarbha as well, but is vehemently opposed by its partner Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena was always a big brother of BJP in the state which was formed much later in 1980. However, the last election in 2014 has changed equations in the state when Sena could manage to get only half number of the seats of BJP. After Babasaheb’s death, Shiv Sena was dominated by BJP and Modi, but this year, they broke the alliance and formed a government with Congress and NCP.

Raj Thackeray split from the Shiv Sena and formed his own Maharashtra Navnirman Sena party in 2006. The party has the ideology of son of the soil. He has been criticised for splitting of votes in Mumbai between him and NDA in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections he lost terribly getting no seat in LS and only two in assembly election (down from 13 in 2009). And this year the party managed to win only one seat. The party at large shrunk to a greater extent due to the arrogant and unreasonable approach of Raj Thackeray. People come in lakhs for his rallies but they don’t give votes to MNS. Perhaps this is the reason why Marathi manoos never made them a choice to rule Maharashtra.

Though Maharashtra politics was dominated by the Congress and so was that at the Centre for many decades, the state could not give India a Prime Minister till date. This is the thing which many Maharashtrians feel sad about. Since its inception in 1960 and also of predecessor states such as Bombay, the politics of Maharashtra has been dominated by the Indian National Congress party. Maharashtra became a bastion of the Congress party stalwarts such as Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantdada Patil, Vasantrao Naik, and Shankarrao Chavan. Sharad Pawar has been a significant personality in both the state and national politics for nearly forty years. During his career, he has split the Congress twice with significant consequences for state politics. After his second parting from the Congress party in 1999, Sharad Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but joined a Congress-led coalition to form the state government after the 1999 Assembly elections. The Congress party enjoyed a nearly unchallenged dominance of the state political landscape until 1995 when the coalition of Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an overwhelming majority in the state beginning a period of coalition governments. The Shiv Sena was the larger party in the coalition. From 1999 until 2014, the NCP and INC formed one coalition while the Shiv Sena and the BJP formed the other for three successive elections which the INC-NCP alliance won. Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress party was the last Chief Minister of Maharashtra under the Congress-NCP alliance that ruled until 2014.

For the 2014 assembly polling, the alliances between the NCP and Congress and between the BJP and Shiv Sena broke down over seat allocations. In the election, the largest number of seats went to the BJP with 122 seats. The BJP initially formed a minority government under Devendra Fadnavis but in December 2014, the Shiv Sena entered the Government and provided a comfortable majority in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha to the Fadnavis-led government. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and Shiv Sena fought under the NDA banner, while the Congress and NCP were part of the UPA. The two alliances remained intact for the legislative assembly elections in October 2019. The BJP and Shiv Sena together gained the majority of seats in the assembly but could not form government due to squabbles between the two parties. The BJP–Shiv Sena alliance came to an end in early November 2019, with Sena subsequently forming a new alliance with its long-time rivals, the NCP and Congress, to form the new state government on 28 November 2019. Other parties in the state include the All India Forward Bloc, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Communist party of India, the Peasant and workers party, the All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, the Samajwadi Party, various factions of the Dalit-dominated Republican Party of India, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Socialist party.

For the better part of the late-colonial and early post-independence periods in the state of Bombay and its successor Maharashtra state, the politics of the state have been dominated by the mainly rural Maratha–Kunbi caste which accounts for 31 per cent of the population of Maharashtra. They dominate the cooperative institutions; and with the resultant economic power, control politics from the village level up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha. As of December 2016 of the 366 MLAs (Legislative Assembly has 288 MLAs and Legislative Council has 78) combined, 169 (46 per cent) are Marathas. Major past political figures of the Congress party from Maharashtra such as Keshavrao Jedhe, Yashwantrao Chavan, Shankarrao Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sharad Pawar have been from this group. Of the 18 chief ministers so far, as many as 10 (55 per cent) have been Marathas. Since the 1980s, this group has also been active in setting up private educational institutions.

(With inputs from various agencies)

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