Maharashtra’s elections are driven by strategic messaging, candidate presence and coalition dynamics.
New Delhi: The biggest political fight between the six major political parties, divided in two major camps of Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and each comprising three parties, are laser focused on two important electoral strategies of “messaging” and “management” in the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
A senior MVA leader said, “Maharashtra controls around 30% GDP of the country and therefore, it is a high stakes election. Each party in both the alliances know that everything has to be right in order to win the election. Moreover, Congress feels that the people in Maharashtra are more inclined towards it and therefore they could have better strike rate than everyone else in the Assembly elections.”
In addition to that, experts think that there are two regions which can play an important role in the government formation as there are chances that the Mahayuti numbers from this region would decline. However, if BJP is able to retain their seats from the two regions, there is high possibility that Mahayuti would retain the government. The Vidharbha and Marathwada region which has 108 Assembly seats, and where BJP had won around 45 Assembly seats in 2019 is showing a stark decline in their seat share, according to the data from the Lok Sabha election results.
A political observer said, “If we break down the voting pattern of each Assembly constituency during the Lok Sabha elections, we will find that the saffron camp has been front runner on just 15 Assembly seats from the Vidharbha region which has 62 Assembly seats and have been leading vote-getters on eight Assembly seats from the Marathwada region which has 46 Assembly seats. If such a trend continues, Congress could be the prime beneficiary from these two regions. Moreover, Congress, according to the Lok Sabha results, is winning 43 Assembly seats from these two regions, this time pushing BJP to half the numbers it had won in 2019.”
A senior political consultant who heads an independent survey in Maharashtra said, “For all parties, it is important to resolve internal disputes and go on streets backing each other rather than trying to cut each other in their journey. Another important things is to develop smooth communication between the alliance partners on both the sides so that the emerging scuffles during the electioneering can be addressed rapidly and does not impact the relationship between the alliance partners, one led by BJP and another by the Congress.”
According to experts, the six major parties have a presence on the ground on considerable area of Maharashtra, which has led the electorate thinking about who they should vote for.
A political observer said, “The candidate’s presence on the ground will matter apart from the narrative of the particular alliance bloc. But if we see from afar, we know that BJP has a robust election machinery which can pull things off in its favour on delicate seats.”