A Clean Sweep

An overwhelming win gives the BJP-Shiv Sena a clear edge over the Congress-NCP in the assembly election later this year

- Kiran D. Tare

During the intense Lok Sabha campaign in Maharashtra, veteran Congress leader and Solapur candidate Sushilkumar Shinde was busy telling voters that sitting MP Sharad Bansode of the BJP had not raised a single starred question about any local issue in the Lok Sabha. But ironically, the former Union home minister’s workers would not stop lauding the refurbishment of the Solapur-Pune highway by the Union transport ministry, after which travel time between the two cities has reduced by at least an hour. Shinde’s criticism of Bansode did not help him win the seat against the BJP’s Jai Siddheshwar Swami. It seems the voters gave more weight to the Modi government’s developmental work than local issues.

Winning 41 out of the states’ 48 seats, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has the upper hand in Maharashtra. The tally is the same as that in 2014. Clearly, the electorate has largely stood by the alliance despite the view in several quarters that the Devendra Fadnavis government failed to fulfil its promises. Sensing trouble, Fadnavis had convinced the BJP top brass early on to ally with the Shiv Sena, swallowing the humiliation Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his party leaders had been heaping on him. The move paid off.