Both Maharashtra, Jharkhand Retain Ruling Coalitions, Priyanka Gandhi Enters Lok Sabha

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 23:  The ruling coalitions not just survived in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, they have actually improved upon their performances over their strength in the respective houses blunting the smashing the opposition’s hopes of staging a comeback.

The outcome of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra has also dealt massive blows to the veteran leader and founder president of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar and the son of the founder leader of Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray who lost their battles in the people’s court as to which faction is the real NCP and Shiv Sena respectively. The people have decided that the heir apparent of Balasaheb Thackeray was the chief minister Eknath Shinde and not his son Uddhav Thackeray while the nephew Ajit Pawar has taken away the real NCP giving the severest blow of his life to his uncle Sharad Pawar who formed the NCP 27 years back separating from the Congress.

Whether the “Mahayuti” in its present form will remain intact in Maharashtra the time will tell but the sweeping victory of the BJP showing a strike rate of nearly 90 per cent has made one of the alliance partner redundant. The BJP on its own has won 133 seats, just eight short of crossing the halfway mark on its own in the 288-member state Assembly, while Mr Shinde’s Sena has won 57 seats and Mr Ajit Pawar’s NCP 41 giving a total of 235 seats in the House, reducing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) to mere 49.

In Jharkhand, the ruling INDIA has romped home with 56 seats in the 81 member state Assembly reducing the BJP-led NDA to mere 24. Besides being one of the important partners of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha among the ruling coalitions in Jharkhand, the only other good news for the Congress on the day was the massive victory of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-elections in Kerala where she won the seat vacated by her brother Rahul Gandhi by a margin of over 6.2 lakh votes.

The BJP’s dream of making some dent in the Trinamool Congress fortress in West Bengal shattered again as the chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s TMC won all the six seats in the state Assembly the byelections for which were held, while in Uttar Pradesh the BJP had an upper hand over the rival Samajwadi Party winning six of the nine seats in the state Assembly where byelections were held.

The Prime Minister Naendra Modi commented on the NDA’s massive win in Maharashtra as “development wins, good governance wins,” the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the Maharashtra results were “unexpected” and added that the party would analyse the reasons for the poor showing in the state.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin congratulated the Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and said despite relentless misuse of power, vendetta politics, and countless obstacles created by the BJP over the past five years, Soren fought and emerged victorious.

The Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hailed the Jharkhand mandate and congratulated Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren for massive victory. She further said that the results in Maharashtra were not as per the expectations. “In democracy, people are supreme. There are wins and losses in elections – we will learn from both victory and defeat,” she said.

The Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar said on the victory of the Mahayuti said it had made their shoulders heavy with the huge responsibilities. He said the people of Maharashtra have bestowed upon the Mahayuti for the next 5 years. “We shall spend every moment working to fulfil their aspirations. We shall not spend a single moment speaking against anyone, we will speak only and only for the development of Maharashtra and the welfare of its people,” he said.

Mr Kharge hailed the Jharkhand mandate saying that the people of Jharkhand have given priority to the issues of their rights, water, forests and land. They have rejected divisive and false politics. They have defeated the game of misuse of constitutional institutions.