Three reasons Mahayuti won big: Cash, caste & polarisation

"When one alliance walks away with nearly 80% of the 288 seats on the wire, as the Mahayuti has done, there are two ways at least to parse the numbers:

One is to question the fairness of the fights and the electoral system to show that there was something more than mere political contests underway; the other is to accept the flaws or alleged foul plays and understand the meaning of the mandate. For want of evidence on the first option, it has to be the latter. And, in a nutshell, cash versus complacency was no battle, really.

The Mahayuti benefited from its use of resources of all kinds cash doles to women under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, promises of three free LPG cylinders, free education, free pilgrimage to free-flowing payouts on the polling day of which there are audio clips, all-paid bus rides back home from cities so people could vote, massive advertising and outreach budgets, and more. How did the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP manage such resources is not a question that will fetch answers but people know. Add to this cash factor a noxious dose of communal polarisation and smart caste calculations - and the Mahayuti's landslide begins to make sense.