Maharashtra Elections: A Battle of Loyalties and the Fight for Identity

On a late April Monday morning, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) office in Pune is quiet, save for the presence of one man - Avinash Vekhal, the 61-year-old assistant secretary. Despite the recent split in the NCP, Vekhal remains loyal to senior leader Sharad Pawar. “After the NCP split, most party leaders and many key workers went with Ajit Dada but I stuck with Pawar Saheb,” he says, reflecting on his 22 years of loyalty.

The split in the NCP, engineered by the BJP, has left a mark on Maharashtra’s political landscape. Now, the decision rests with the people. “The people will decide who represents the real NCP — Pawar Saheb or Ajit Dada?” Vekhal questions.

Maharashtra, with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, has emerged as a key battleground in this general election. The state could potentially make or break Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of returning to power for a third straight term with even greater numbers than in 2019.

However, the ground reality in Maharashtra could dash Modi’s, and the BJP’s, hopes. “People are confused because they have lost trust in politicians who are changing colours faster than a chameleon,” says Omkar Landge, a young voter in Pune. He holds the BJP responsible for splitting the Marathi parties using the “CBI-ED”.

Both Uddhav Thackeray and senior Pawar, powered by a strong regional sentiment, have been drawing huge crowds at their rallies. The two leaders are fighting an existential battle, having lost the “ownership” of their respective parties and their symbols to their relatives.

In addition to the sympathy factor linked to Marathi pride, the anger among the electorally influential Marathas over the non-implementation of their demand for reservation under the OBC quota and the anger among farmers over the steep rise in prices of fertilisers, appears to have eclipsed the Modi factor in the state to a great extent.

The biggest fault line in this election, however, is the undercurrent of tension between the Marathas and the OBCs over reservations. The BJP-backed Eknath Shinde government in the state has sought to play it safe by allotting a 10 per cent separate quota for the Marathas in state government jobs and admission in state government-run educational institutions, not touching the OBC pie. This has angered the Marathas but at the same time not pleased the OBCs as well.

The real battle for Maharashtra, however, is expected to play out in the Assembly polls later this year and the Lok Sabha results will set the stage for it, with the fate of regional satraps at stake “under attack from the Modi-Shah BJP”.

35 of Maharashtra’s 48 seats voted in the first four phases. The remaining seats will vote on May 20. As the state gears up for the final phase of voting, the question remains - who will the people choose?