Even though the dates for the Maharashtra assembly elections are yet to be announced, the political atmosphere in the state has already started heating up. While there is a dispute over seat sharing between the ruling alliance of Mahajyuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s party, there is also a battle going on to advance and cut the narrative for the Lok Sabha elections. Vidarbha has become the arena for this battle of narratives.
While the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is trying to push the trend of the Lok Sabha election results in Vidarbha, Mahayuti has now unveiled its biggest face in the region as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be arriving in Maharashtra for the third time in a month. The PM will attend events in Wardha and Amravati. The PM will launch the Acharya Chanakya skill development programme and Ahiryabai Holkar women entrepreneurship programme in Wardha. Wardha is also from the Vidarbha region.
After PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah is also scheduled to visit Vidarbha. Shah will address a meeting of BJP officials in Nagpur. The successive visits of two senior BJP leaders and the party’s active activities in the Vidarbha region have aroused the vigilance of the opposition alliance. The question is, first PM Modi and then Amit Shah, why did the BJP send its key leaders to Vidarbha before the election schedule was announced?
Lok Sabha election trends
The trend in the Lok Sabha elections is also said to be a major reason for the frequent visits by top BJP leaders. The Vidarbha region has 62 parliamentary seats. The BJP-led alliance won 42 seats in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Then the opposition candidate Maha Vikas Aghadi won with 15 seats. But if the recent Lok Sabha election results are viewed from the perspective of the parliament, the lead of the BJP-led alliance has been reduced to 22 parliamentary seats. The opposition alliance is ahead in 35 parliamentary seats.
The Math of Alliance Revenge
One of the reasons for the BJP’s growing activism before announcing its election plans is the change in the mathematical structure of the alliance. The party had fought the 2019 elections in alliance with Shiv Sena. Even in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the party was in alliance with Shiv Sena but with Eknath Shinde’s party. Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s party’s plan to compensate for the losses incurred by not being with Uddhav Thackeray almost proved to be a failure in the Lok Sabha elections.
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In such a situation, having recovered from this setback, the party does not want to let down its guard on any front in the assembly elections and perhaps that is why the party has started trying to create an atmosphere among the public on one hand and fielding PM Modi and Amit on the other hand and tightening the screws of the organisation by bringing a skilled organiser and strategist like Shah to the front.
Vidarbha is the decider of power
Regional parties like Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress also have a strong presence in Maharashtra politics. Whoever forms the government, its fulcrum will be one or the other of the two parties. The political trend in Maharashtra is also influenced by the fact that the two parties do not have equal control over pan-Maharashtra and are confined to specific belts.
Also read: ‘Mahayuti reached a consensus and ended up sharing 80% of seats’, says BJP president Bawankule.
The Shiv Sena is strong in the Mumbai-Thane region, while the NCP’s stronghold is in western Maharashtra and Marathwada. The decision on which party comes to power in the state is decided by voters in Vidarbha. There is a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress in the region.
Vidarbha is associated with prestige
Why Vidarbha has become a prestigious region for the BJP can also be seen from the fact that the BJP, which has deep ties with the BJP, has its headquarters in Nagpur. From Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP bigwig in Maharashtra and former chief minister and deputy chief minister in the Shinde government, to Nitin Gadkari, the party’s former state president and Union minister, many big names in the party are from the region. Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule also hails from the Vidarbha region. In this context, it would be a shame if a party loses in this region.
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