Nothing surprising has emerged in the results of the municipal elections held in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance has registered major victories in most of the 29 municipal corporations in which elections were held on Saturday. With this, Mahayuti has again gained control over almost the entire governance system of the state, from village level Panchayats to big urban municipal corporations.
If the opposition does not make wise changes in its strategy in time, it may also lose in the Zilla Parishad elections to be held at the end of this month. This situation has arisen within just 20 months of the major setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when Maha Vikas Aghadi had to win only 17 seats out of 48.
The victory of Mahayuti is so big that BJP does not see any major political threat from the opposition for a long time to come. Statistics show that Mahayuti won in 25 out of 29 municipal corporations, i.e. about 80 percent. However, out of the total 2,869 seats, the alliance got a little more than 1,800 seats, which is about 65 percent. Had this figure been around five percent more, the opposition’s performance would have looked respectable.
BJP becomes the largest party
In 2017, Mahayuti had only 15 municipal corporations, whereas this time BJP has single-handedly won majority in at least seven municipal corporations. These include Nagpur, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Panvel and Dhule. BJP won 1,425 seats in the entire state, but despite this its vote share still did not cross the 30 percent mark. It is estimated that this time also BJP got about 28 percent votes. The total voting percentage also remained between 46 to 50 percent, hence the party’s claims of widespread public support seem to be exaggerated. Shiv Sena Even after adding about 14 percent votes, Mahayuti remained about eight percent below the overall 50 percent mark.
Despite this, BJP is likely to become mayor in at least 20 municipal corporations, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. BMC is the richest municipal body in the country, whose budget is about Rs 75 thousand crores, which is more than the total budget of all other municipal corporations. BJP wanted to win it at any cost for a long time and finally it was successful.
Although there were many allegations during the elections like use of money power and muscle power, winning 66 seats without competition and irregularities related to ink, still BJP did not waver from its path. The resentment among the old supporters of the party and dissatisfaction over giving tickets to outsiders also could not have much impact on the results. In cities like Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Navi Mumbai, mutual allegations and counter-allegations between the constituent parties of Mahayuti also did not become a hindrance in BJP’s victory.
Things did not work out even with the Thackeray brothers coming together.
The coming together of Thackeray brothers also could not show any significant impact. almost two decades later Uddhav Thackeray And Raj Thackeray came on one platform and tried to revive the Thackeray brand, but BJP limited Shiv Sena UBT to just 65 seats and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to eight seats. BJP deliberately kept Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah away from the campaign, so that the Thackeray brothers do not get additional benefit on the issue of Marathi Manush.
In Mumbai, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena performed better than the Shinde faction, but its seats decreased by 19 compared to 2017. The issue of Marathi Manush could not fully appeal to Marathi voters, although the inclination of non-Marathi voters was already believed to be towards BJP. One of the reasons for the limited success of the Thackeray brothers is their coming together late.
Shinde faction’s Shiv Sena won 397 seats in the state. Congress got 324 seats. Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party got 160 seats, while Sharad Pawar’s party faced a crushing defeat and was reduced to only 36 seats.
AIMIM surprised everyone
One surprising aspect in these elections was the performance of Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM. The party increased its seats from 81 to 126 compared to 2017. Due to this, BJP got indirect benefit in many places. By winning eight seats from Muslim dominated areas in Mumbai, this party reduced the votes of Shiv Sena, UBT, Congress and Sharad Pawar faction. The party got maximum 33 seats in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and 21 seats in Malegaon.
Overall, BJP’s performance in BMC was excellent, but in terms of seats, its lead was only seven seats. Considering the gap of eight years, this increase is not considered very big. BJP and Shinde faction together were able to get only four seats more than the majority in the 227-member BMC. This means that for BJP to retain power in BMC, it will be necessary to keep Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde with it. If Shinde takes a tough stance on the mayor’s post, BJP may have to compromise.
Congress’s respectable performance in Latur
Congress formed an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, but this step was taken late. Despite this, the alliance performed respectably in some municipal corporations like Latur. But the biggest blow came to the Pawar family, which came together again after three years. He suffered a crushing defeat from BJP in strongholds like Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
biggest win Devendra Fadnavis of
Amidst all this, the biggest political message has emerged regarding the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He single-handedly campaigned across the state, faced questions from the media and the opposition, and achieved election victory without big leaders like Modi and Shah. His journey from being a local leader of Nagpur to becoming a strong leader of the entire state has been very fast. Now eyes are on Zilla Parishad elections. If BJP wins there too, then Devendra Fadnavis can be counted among the biggest faces of the party in future.
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