With no CM face, parties prepare for multi-cornered fight in Maharashtra

Maharashtra gears up for intense six-polar assembly elections on November 20, with alliances and factions in play.

Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday (October 15, 2024). With this, the political parties have begun gearing up for an election which will be unprecedented in many ways.

This is the first time that two factions of the two largest regional parties in the State, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party, will fight against each other, with a six-polar tussle on the election battlefield. Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has decided to go alone, and some regional players are also looking to put together a third front.

Both the alliances – the ruling MahaYuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi — have not declared any Chief Ministerial face for the election. While the government is banking on the popularity of Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, the Opposition is wary of its impact. Be it the OBC, Maratha or the Dhangar-Adivasi face-off, or the impact of Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil in Marathwada, or the possibility of a third front, the upcoming elections will be intense.

Agricultural distress, particularly of soybean and cotton farmers, joblessness among youths, law and order, and women’s safety will likely be the issues that will dominate the elections apart from caste-based reservation demands. The State government has already taken several decisions to appease and reach out to smaller communities, in the hope of reaping poll benefits. At the last minute, the government declared seven of the 12 Governor-appointed Legislative Council members.

“November 20 will decide the fate of Maharashtra. People have seen the impactful work of the MahaYuti government for the last two years. Maharashtra is number one on so many fronts now,” Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said after the announcement of the polls. He also slammed the Opposition for their comments on voting machines.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ushered in what he called the “biggest festival of democracy”. “Diwali will be a festival of lights. And then we will celebrate the second Vikas Prakash Parva together on November 20! Under the leadership of BJP, we gave great success and complete majority in 2014, 2019. Let us all come together again, and let’s celebrate the victory of MahaYuti on November 23! Let’s all participate in this people’s festival in large numbers! Maharashtra is waiting for your blessings and strong mandate for development,” he wrote on X.

Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party State president Sunil Tatkare said seat-sharing talks will be wrapped up within two days and that the MahaYuti will speed up work for booth-level coordination.