Incipient Maharashtra Model

The controversy over electoral votes apart, the Mahayuti won as it recalibrated with ground-level mobilisation, alarmed by the results of the Lok Sabha elections, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi lost due to its ‘business as usual’ attitude

- Anand Teltumbde

THE assembly election results in Maharashtra shocked most people, including the winners. The stunning turnaround within five months from the 17-30 defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha to 235-50 victory in the assembly, from a vote share deficit of one percentage point to a lead of 14 points is simply indigestible. What was particularly astounding was the BJP’s strike rate of 89 per cent, winning 132 of the 149 seats it contested. Though most exit polls had predicted a victory for the Mahayuti, none had predicted such a sweep. Incidentally, this is the third election within a year—Madhya Pradesh in 2023, Haryana in October and now Maharashtra—held under current Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar that has brought an increasing amount of incredibility to the election results.

The Maharashtra results are going to get the BJP on steroids to resume its bull run towards its goal—accomplishing a de jure Hindu Rashtra.

Counting Woes

A cross-section of people suspected massive election fraud not without justification. It was due to the huge discrepancy in polling figures declared by the Election Commission (EC). At 5 pm on November 20, when the polling officially closed, the ‘provisional polling figure’ given out was 58 per cent, which went up to 65 per cent at 11:30 pm, and three days later, on November 23, hours before counting started, it was put at over 66 per cent. The total increase in percentage point terms was 7.83 per cent—which meant that almost 76 lakh voters cast their votes in the state after polling officially ended.