CLOSE on the heels of a surprise win in Haryana, the BJP registered an unprecedented victory in Maharashtra along with its allies, Shiv Sena (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar), in the recently-held Assembly elections.
Though the BJP failed to clinch the mandate from JMM-led opposition alliance in Jharkhand, the party had reasons to celebrate as it turned upside down the trend witnessed in the politically-critical states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.
“Maharashtra has broken all records. In the last 50 years, this has been the biggest win for any party or pre-poll alliance,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, summing up the mood of the party at BJP headquarters in Delhi.
So impressive was the BJP’s sweep in Maharashtra that incumbent CM Eknath Shinde agreed to offer the post of the Chief Minister to the party, which had won a near- majority of its own in Mahayuti’s tally of 23 5 seats in the 288-member state Assembly.
The spectacular victory the BJP-led Mahayuti scored in Maharashtra has altered the landscape in one of the most economically-advanced states in the country, and national politics.
Of course, the results in Jharkhand, which went to polls along with Maharashtra gave the opposition INDI Alliance some breathing space. Yet the sheer scale of Mahayuti’s victory relegated the Jharkhand triumph to the back burner. On the other hand, the BJP had the last laugh by winning seven of the nine seats in the concurrently held by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, another big state where it had lost ground in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Sheen is back
The immediate impact of the election outcome is likely to be felt in the winter session of Parliament. The Modi Government was emboldened to push its legislative agenda, particularly the controversial Waqf Bill, and PM’s pet reform idea of “One Nation One Election”.
For the BJP, the commanding victory in Maharashtra is the capstone of its organisational strength and governance record, restoring the sheen the party appeared to have lost when it dropped seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
The results have also demonstrated that the marginal loss of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls was because the people had been misled by the opposition for a while. As PM Modi rightly put it: “The people have endorsed the BJP model of governance and the fast-track road to Viksit Bharat adopted by the NDA Government in its third term”.
