The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election results are all set to be declared on Saturday, November 23, after the state voted for all its 288 constituencies in a single phase on Wednesday, November 20. The BJP-led Mahayuti Alliance is at loggerheads with the Congress-led Maha Vikas Agadhi.
While the exit polls have predicted the Mahayuti alliance to have an upper hand over its opponent, the pulse of the people of Maharashtra indicates that there is neck-to-neck competition between the two alliances and it is tough to foresee a clear winner. In the meantime, the Congress-led Maha Vikas Agadhi has rejected the exit poll results as well.
Looking at the Maharashtra elections, it is unequivocal that the two most important and debated topics during the campaigning of the two alliances fighting each other for power were firstly, the Dharavi slum development project, and secondly, the freebie politics played by both the camps.
While the Mahayuti alliance has been backing the Dharavi redevelopment project, spearheaded by Adani Realty, the MVA has been opposing the idea, alleging ‘scams’ and questioning the ‘monopoly’ of private players like Adani.
Surprisingly, Dharavi also witnessed a jump in its voter turnout, which stood at 50.03 percent.
On the other hand, the freebie-politics going on in the state has also raised some eyebrows. Earlier, the Maharashtra government announced the Maazhi Laadki Bahin Yojana, on the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government’s Ladli Behen Yojana, wherein the women from economically weaker sections of both the states receive fixed amounts of money into their bank accounts every month.
During the election campaign, the Mahayuti camp promised to hike the sum of money provided to every woman under this scheme from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2100. And to woo voters similarly, the MVA too, promised to up the ante with a monthly allowance of Rs. 3000 for the women of Maharashtra. Along with this, both the camps eyeing power in the state have announced full loan waivers for farmers as well. The two parties have also talked about ambitious incentives for the youth of the state too.
Now, it is worth the wait to observe how feasible and economically sustainable these freebies prove to be for the state, no matter who emerges victorious.
Now, coming back to what the people of Maharashtra believe has happened so far and is expected to unfold, speaking with Sonakshi Datta of GoaChronicle, a Mumbai citizen remarked, ‘It is a neck-to-neck fight but I believe the Mahayuti has an edge. While there is a deep caste-angle in Maharashtra politics, another narrative that has been successfully peddled by the local media is how allegedly, Uddhav Thackeray was duped by the BJP.’
‘These factors and the Muslims voting against the Mahayuti, en masse, create colossal points of politics’, he added.
Another citizen said, ‘While freebies like Laadki Bahin have proven to be supportive to the BJP’s image, the victory of the MVA cannot be ruled out either.’
‘Nobody could say clearly as to who would emerge victorious. While the MVA is confident of it bagging power, the impact the Mahayuti alliance has created is huge. While I reckon Mahayuti will come back in power, nothing colossal could be said beforehand, and we have to wait for the results on November 23’, remarked a Pune citizen.
While the MVA has been trying to capitalize on Rahul Gandhi’s Samvidhan Samman Sammelans, the Mahayuti has had the Modi factor in its weaponry; and with the kind of uncertainty exuded not only by the people of Maharashtra, but also the exit poll results, only the final results would determine as to who would come to power in the state as the election was anything but a walk in the park for either of the camps.
