Will the BJP assert itself at the national level, pushing its NDA allies to a corner and imposing its decisions on them after it won 132 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly?
Though the saffron party could not get a majority of its own, its performance was much better than what was expected by most of the political pundits and psephologists.
The saffron party won 132 out of 149 seats contested in the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024, registering an 88.6% striking rate.
BJP Buoyed On Maharashtra Election Success
This is in stark contrast to the Lok Sabha Election 2024 when the BJP was limited to 240 seats, much below the majority mark of 273. Buoyed by its success, the saffron party made its intention and the future game plan clear in the most unambiguous terms when it let tensions over the government formation in Maharashtra hang for ten days, without batting an eyelid.
Though Eknath Shinde led the election campaign of the Mahayuti coalition and was treated as the future leader of the alliance, the BJP made it abundantly clear at the outset that he would not be made the Chief Minister this time.
BJP Floors Eknath Shinde
Despite announcing that he would not be a hurdle in the government formation and accept whatever PM Narendra Modi decides, Eknath Shinde made his intention clear by leaving Mumbai and going to his native village in the Satara district at a time when the talks for the government formation were going on in the state’s capital.
He initially rejected the idea of being Deputy CM but had to eat the humble pie at last. He not only took oath as the deputy CM but also agreed to leave the Home department.
Also Read: Devendra Fadnavis Returns As Maharashtra CM: Rising Saffron Politics, Shiv Sena Going Back To Bala Saheb Days?
Though Mahayuti partners Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party have emerged as stronger and not to be browbeaten with 57 and 41 seats respectively, the saffron party has not shown any mercy to them in the seat-sharing talks, which have remained inconclusive even after more than ten days of parleys.
BJP Back With A Vengeance
The BJP is back with a vengeance after emerging as an icon of Hindutva in the state where it is poised to eat into the support base of both factions of Shiv Sena.
Political observers believe, the saffron party will now assert itself at the national level and will try to dominate its NDA partners. After showing a poor performance with just 240 seats in the Lok Sabha Elections a few months back, now the party has made its presence felt.
Regional Satraps Of BJP
The age of regional satraps may also be back in the BJP, as is evident by the emergence of Devendra Fadnavis. Now he can rub shoulders with Yogi Adityanath and Himant Biswa Sarma.
Gone are the days in the saffron party when satraps like Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, and B S Yediyurappa used to assert themselves, much to the chagrin of the central leadership. All of them have been sidelined one by one. However, Devendra Fadnavis has proved his worth as well as loyalty.
Woes Of Congress Gets More Complicated
On the other hand, the woes of the Congress are compounding and have increased after the Maharashtra elections. The grand old party has not only lost the momentum it gained in the Lok Sabha elections, it has been reduced to a non-entity in Maharashtra with just 20 assembly seats.
The opposition coalition of the INDIA is equally in disarray. While the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has given it the cold shoulder just before the assembly elections in Delhi, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party virtually cut it out in the recently held by-polls in Uttar Pradesh. The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has kept itself away while ruling the roost in West Bengal.
The BJP is returning to the national politics with a changed mood, it may be more belligerent and aggressive to its own allies, leaving aside the opposition parties.
