With most of the exit polls predicting a majority for the Mahayuti led by the BJP, the saffron party is preparing to occupy a central position post the results which will be declared on Saturday. The main question is who will be the BJP’s candidate for chief ministership. The party had assiduously avoided projecting anyone as the CM candidate and has preferred to wait for the results to be declared. However, considerable significance is assigned to Fadnavis’ meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Sangh’s headquarters in Mahal, Nagpur, on Thursday.  Officially it is being said Fadnavis called on Bhagwat to thank for the massive voter mobilisation that the Sangh Parivar did during the assembly poll of November 20. 

Sources in the BJP told that in June, 2022 the party made a big blunder in agreeing to have Eknath Shinde, the rebel Shiv Sena leader, as the CM. Fadnavis (54) had played a crucial role behind the scenes in vertically splitting the Shiv Sena and pulling down the Uddhav Thackeray government. He staged a coup right under the nose of Thackeray by weaning  away Shinde and his pack of 36 MLAs away from Uddhav Thackeray.  For all his efforts, it was widely assumed in BJP circles that Fadnavis would be rewarded with the CM’s post, especially since the party had the maximum number of MLAs at 105.  

However, the cadres and Fadnavis himself was stunned when the BJP high command wanted Shinde to be the CM.  In fact, Fadnavis publicly made his disappointment public by asserting that he was not interested in joining the Shinde-led government. It required a lot of cajoling from PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah to get him to work under Shinde. 

The central leadership’s calculation was that by anointing Shinde as the CM the Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray would be politically emaciated. However, the past two years’ experience has proved the BJP central leaderships’ calculations wrong. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is not only strong but in fact put up a rather impressive performance in the Lok Sabha elections early this year at the cost of the BJP.

Several persons in the BJP are saying, in retrospect, that had Fadnavis been made the CM after the eclipse of the MVA government led by Thackeray the party would have politically become stronger and done well in the LS polls. “We hope that the central leadership of our party will learn a lesson from the mistakes committed by it in the past and this time around recommend Fadnavis for the CM’s post. He has already served as CM from 2014 to 2019 and acquitted himself well as a good administrator,” a senior BJP leader observed.

There are a few other contenders for the CM’s post like Pankaja Munde, Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde. But none of them have the political stature of Fadnavis who is keen on working only in Maharashtra. The only minus point is that he belongs to the Brahmin caste which is traditionally distrusted by the Marathas. But then it was Fadnavis who took the initiative to pass a law providing for reservation for Marathas. 

All these calculations are based on the surmise that the psephologists have got it right this time around vis-a-vis the assembly poll outcome. Also, the increase in voting percentage is expected to help the BJP.  However, the BJP has kept a Plan B ready lest its calculations go awry. The party is not averse to taking the help of Sharad Pawar if the Mahayuti falls short of numbers.  The Central government has already put tremendous pressure on Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule in the Rs 250 cr bitcoin case. It might politically weaponise the case to make Pawar fall in line. It may even agree to accommodate Supriya as the deputy CM.

It may be recalled that Pawar, for all his secular posturings, has as early as 1978 joined hands with the Janata Party (of which the major component was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) to become the CM. More recently, he was part of the plot to let his nephew Ajit Pawar join hands with the BJP to form a government in November, 2019. Also, industrialist Gautam Adani is a common link between Pawar Sr and the BJP. 

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on Friday expressed his intention to support a party or alliance to form the government in Maharashtra after the election results.

Prakash Ambedkar’s announcement comes a day before the counting of votes for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections on November 23.

In a post on X, Prakash said, “If the VBA gets the numbers tomorrow to support a party or an alliance to form the government in Maharashtra, we will choose to align with one that can form the government. We will choose power!”

Prakash Ambedkar’s post has attracted reactions on social media. Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai reacted to VBA chief’s announcement saying, “Jai Bhim! Babasaheb must wonder if this is what the social and political revolution is all about! POWER at all costs Prakash Ambedkar ?? At least you are being candid now.”

Notably, in these elections, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has fielded around 200 candidates across Maharashtra. However, earlier this year, in the Lok Sabha elections, it fielded candidates in 38 seats but failed to win any. Despite this, it secured 2.77 percent of the total votes polled.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the VBA had garnered a significant 6.98 percent vote share, while it managed 5.57 percent in the Assembly elections held the same year.

Maharashtra voted on Wednesday in a single-phase election for all 288 Assembly seats.

Mumbai: The voting for the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections concluded on Wednesday, with the state recording 65.02 per cent voter turnout across 36 districts. In the Mumbai City district, all eyes are on the high-profile Mahim and Worli constituencyes, from where the political dynasty of Maharashtra, Amit Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray contested.

As per the Election Commission data, in Mumbai City district, Mahim constituency has recorded the highest turnout with 58 per cent, followed by Wadala constituency with 57.37 per cent. Worli constituency recorded 52.78 per cent voter turnout, while Malabar Hill recorded 52.53 per cent. Following the tradition, the Colaba constituency stood at the bottom of the list for voter turnout, with mere 44.49 per cent voting percentage.

However, it needs to be noted that the voter turnout for Mumbai City is higher in 2024 compared to 2019 assembly polls. In 2019, Mumbai City had recorded 48.26 per cent voter turnout. In 2019, Mahim had recorded 52.71 per cent, Worli had recorded 48.09 per cent, while Colaba has recorded mere 40.13 per cent.

In 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, Mumbai City has recorded a total of 52.07 per cent voter turnout and Mumbai Suburbs recorded 55.76 per cent. Mumbai City district has 10 assembly constituencies and Mumbai Suburbs has 26.

In Mumbai Suburbs, Bhandup West has recorded the highest voter turnout with 61.12 per cent, followed by Borivali and Mulund with 60.5 per cent. In the suburbs, Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency has recorded the lowest voter turnout with 52 per cent.

The voting for all 288 assemblies in Maharashtra was concluded on Wednesday evening. The results will be declared on Saturday, November 23.