Opposition Narratives Demolished in Maharashtra Poll

Bhubaneswar: (Ajoy Kumar Misra) several narratives set by the opposition—Congress, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar) and others—have been demolished completely in the election held for Maharashtra Assembly. In every election, parties normally set narratives to outwit their opposition. This election was no exception. But what has gone wrong with the opposition parties that they persisted with their narratives they had set during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections while the BJP reworked its narrative to counter the opposition plot.

The Congress—led by Rahul Gandhi—was complacent about the narratives it had set during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It had tried to harp on caste census and ‘safeguarding’ the constitution and had succeeded hugely to lower the victory margin on the BJP in the polls. The BJP, though the single largest party, had managed only 240 seats and was down 32 to form a government at the Centre on its own. It is another matter that it had pre-poll alliance with parties like the Janata Dal (U), Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan and the Telegu Desam Party led by Chandrababu Naidu and was able to form a NDA government comfortably at the Centre. But the Haryana election deflected the ego of the Congress and the BJP returned to power in that state despite a huge anti-incumbency wave. Hence the narrative that the Congress was the only savior of the country and constitution has fallen flat yet again in Maharashtra where it had with allies put up a grand show in the Lok Sabha election.

The BJP’s ‘Batoge to Katoge’ and ‘Ek hai to Safe hai’ neutralized all the campaign of the Congress, allies and the so called champions of the Muslims. Several ulemas issued ‘fatwa’ to defeat the BJP but that was not enough to counter the ‘Batoge to Katoge’ narrative coined by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The Hindus united during the election and the role of Rashtriya Swayam Sangh was noteworthy in the effort.

Fawad Ahmed — husband of Swara Bhaskar who is a strong critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP, also lost the poll battle. The claim of Uddhab Thackrey that he is the political heir of Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackrey has also fallen flat. A former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and leader of a faction of the now split Shiv Sena, has managed only 20 seats while Eknath Shinde, who broke away from him, bagged 57 seats. Even Raj Thackrey, though in alliance with the BJP, has failed to enthuse Shiv Sainiks in any manner. While Aditya Thackrey just managed to scrape through, Amit Thackrey—son of Raj Thackrey—lost the election. This is a clear hint from the electorate that they recognize Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and political heir of Balasaheb.

The narrative that Sharad Pawar was the tallest leader and invincible in Maharashtra, has also fallen flat. His party could only 10 seats. It is saddening to note that the Maratha leader and ‘Chanakya’ of Maharashtra politics has virtually been humbled by the political acumen of BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis will continue to remain as the tallest leader in Maharashtra for quite some time until someone of his caliber or more does not surface in the political horizon of the state. The narrative set by former pollster Yogendra Yadav that the Maha Vikash Aghadi is set to sweep Maharashtra has fallen flat. Of course not many people in India take Yadav seriously anymore as he has tended to be partisan in his analysis. His prediction during the Haryana Assembly polls also was in favour of the Congress which was later proved wrong.

The narrative that Hindutwa pang in poll battle has died down has also been proved wrong in Uttar Pradesh by-elections. The Samajwadi Party had been claiming hard that the Ram Mandir sentiment has vanished in Uttar Pradesh as the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat was bagged by a Samajwadi Party leader Avdesh Prasad. Kundarki, a muslim dominated constituency, has returned a Hindu candidate in the biggest surprise. The candidate was pitted against 11 Muslim nominees of parties and some independents. The results in both Haryana and Maharashtra has provided enough food for the Opposition INDIA bloc to ponder over the debacle and go for course correction.