Mumbai: In a huge anti-incumbency sweep across Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party with 123 seats in the 288-member legislative assembly.
But that figure is not enough to form a government- it would have to find an ally, perhaps team up with the Shiv Sena, from which it broke off before the elections.
It was a day of high expectations for the BJP which had been banking on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who swept the party to victory through his relentless campaign against the 15-year “misrule” of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government. One thing is clear: the state is heading for a coalition government though Modi had fiercely appealed for a complete majority.
And in a big twist to the election results, NCP leader Praful Patel came forward offering outside support to the BJP.
“The voters have not given a clear verdict to any party in Maharashtra. The BJP has got most seats and we want stability in the state,” said Patel,
Modi had described the NCP as the “naturally corrupt party” responsible for irrigation scams and farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha.
With asked whether they would approache Shiv Sena to form the government, BJP president Amit Shah said at a press conference they did not break away, but that irreconcilable issues forced the break-up of the 25-year-old alliance with Sena. With the Shiv Sena winning 61 seats, the two parties could form a formidable 184-member government. But Shah did not confirm if the saffron alliance would get back together and said all these issues would be discussed at the BJP’s Parliamentary Board meeting.
However, NCP’s offer has only put the BJP in an unsettling position.
As news of BJP winning more seats came in right through the day, party workers and supporters began celebrating outside the party’s Nariman Point office where ‘ladoos’ (Indian sweet) were distributed among senior leaders and supporters.
The BJP conquest is however, not absolute - it needs 22 more seats for the magic number of 145 to form a government. Squabbles over seat sharing and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s insistence on the chief minister’s post being given to his party led to the break-up. But Shah made it clear this afternoon that a BJP government would be formed in Maharashtra with a BJP chief minister. That would mean Uddhav, whose party fought the elections for the first without the late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, his father, would not have an edge in bargaining with the BJP for plum ministerial posts.
Meanwhile, amid the excitement across Maharashtra over the BJP’s big gain, the Congress and NCP, though not decimated in a sense, have been completely sidelined — winning just 43 and 41 seats respectively with the former down by 41 and the latter 21 from their 2009 tally. Former Chief Minsiter Prithviraj Chavan, who won from his Karad seat, while congratulating the BJP, said he took responsibility for the poor showing of the Congress since he had led the election campaign. His party will now introspect and build a stronger Congress, he said.
One party that has been totally wiped out is Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which crashed from 13 seats in 2009 to just one this time.
Interestingly, an all-together new entrant in Maharashtra — the Hyderabad-based Majli-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) notched up stunning victories in three constituencies and was also leading in a fourth.
