Sena president Uddhav Thackeray leads the three-party government, relegating the aggrieved single-largest party to the Opposition benches. In such a scenario, the BJP’s campaign in Maharashtra has been different from other states because it is not in power here, whereas the MVA plank is mostly the same as other anti-BJP parties, which were in the Opposition. Unlike the current ruling parties in Maharashtra, they did not face the disadvantage of anti-incumbency. But, it seems the potential use of anti-incumbency by opponents does not bother Pawar much, because Maharashtra had three back-to-back NCP-Congress alliance governments till the Modi wave propelled the BJP beyond a 120-mark in 2014. When it goes solo in the next polls, the BJP will have to be much ahead in the numbers game.

Maharashtra is the next important state after UP in terms of the number of MPs it sends. Unlike UP, where the Assembly polls take place two years before the Lok Sabha polls, Maharashtra’s polls happen six months after the general elections. Assuming impossibility of mid-term Assembly polls, the Lok Sabha results will indicate the voting trend in Maharashtra. Ahead of the general elections, the local self-government polls, slated for this year but delayed because of the OBC quota glitch, will have strategists working overtime. It may help MVA parties decide whether they contest as a collective force or split anti-BJP votes.   

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.84%

AAP 41.79%

INC 25.37%

Submit

View All In Poll

The unity experiments in UP have failed in the past, and this year, the elections turned out to be a bipolar fight between the BJP and Samajwadi Party, despite two others—the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party—in the fray. In this context, Maharashtra’s local self-government polls, the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha are expected to be even more interesting, depending on the integration and disintegration of political forces. The AIMIM, which was accused of being the BJP’s Team-B in UP, has asked whether it will be allowed to prove the allegation wrong by joining the MVA’s pre-poll alliance. The response to the AIMIM’s appeal doesn’t assure any positive progress. But isn’t politics indefinite? It could be anything—a straight one between the MVA versus the BJP, or a multi-corner fight, say pundits, who also predict a pre-poll alliance between any of the two MVA partners, if the third one is not willing to join in.

Promising to be a lone ranger, yet the winner, the BJP has sounded the bugle. Taking up the challenge, Sharad Pawar has raised the baton yet again to conduct the MVA choir.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com