It has played out pretty much according to the script and the results of assembly polls in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Haryana have highlighted the chequered path for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), more so in Maharashtra. The fact that the BJP triumphed in Haryana, ousting the Congress party, is not surprising. So is the fact that it has not gone past the halfway mark in Maharashtra despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-octane campaigning.
And now the BJP must ruminate on the compulsions of reconciliation with either the Shiv Sena, its partner of 25 years it dumped on the eve of elections over seat-sharing or with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), another pre-poll enemy. It’s another matter that the BJP-Sena divorce only proved their marriage was but a device to face a common enemy — the Congress. With the latter now rendered effete, the traditional egotism of the Sena is locking horns with the newly-bred supremacy of the BJP and the irony is, neither is in a position to win. They need each other but not before they get past the deal-breaker — who will get to appoint the chief minister? It’s an unprecedented predicament for a state that has seen a straight fight for over a decade. Whichever party hugs and makes up with the BJP, one thing is clear: Maharashtra has voted itself into an era of expedient politics like never before.
