SOME HIDDEN MESSAGES FROM MAHARASHTRA AND JHARKHAND

In Maharashtra, the voter has rewarded those with gumption and a new-age paradigm, rather than vote for a jaded brand of leadership that is served on a platter.

- PRIYA SAHGAL

The Maharashtra Assembly elections had ☐ an interesting subtext: the battle of the disruptors vs the inheritors.

Initially, the entire Mahayuti Alliance was painted as a disruptor as it broke two regional parties to form a grouping that destabilised the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. The breakaway factions broke the dynastic chain of command and stole their respective party away from the identified heir apparent. Eknath Shinde wrested the Sena (symbol and all) from Uddhav Thackeray, while Ajit Pawar interjected himself as Sharad Pawar's heir apparent, cutting out Supriya Sule from the line of succession.

This election has ratified these disruptions, anointing Eknath Shinde as Bal Thackeray's successor and Ajit as the next Mr Pawar. Clearly, the voter has rewarded those with gumption and a new-age paradigm, rather than vote for a jaded brand of leadership that is served on a platter.

The first impact of the Maharashtra win will be when Parliament meets for the winter session. Soon after the Lok Sabha results, a buoyant Opposition, sensing a chink in the BJP's armour had gone after the Narendra Modi government.

They even managed to get the government on the back foot and roll back some of its announcements. However, the Haryana elections saw the BJP regain some of its mojo. The Narendra Modi, who strode into the BJP office post the Haryana win, had a lot more swagger than the one who addressed the NDA after the Lok Sabha results. This was a Modi moment and as Maharashtra has shown, he kept up the momentum. Congress leader K.P. Singh Deo told NewsX that the score is equal: we won two and they won two. He meant that the I.N.D.I.A bloc had won Jharkhand and earlier Jammu and Kashmir; while the BJP and its allies won Maharashtra and Haryana.