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After an impressive show in the Lok Sabha elections, the Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced “Mission 246 plus” for the ensuing elections to the 288-member state Assembly slated for September-October.
The BJP, which has won 23 Lok Sabha seats, followed by the Shiv Sena, which won 18 seats and the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, which won one seat, have already met informally and decided to step up efforts to further embarrass the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which have faced a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
The partners have also decided to involve members of their respective parties up to booth level to expose various scams and irregularities that took place during the Congress-NCP government.
The three parties propose to run a poll campaign on a positive agenda by reaching out to voters with a plea to vote for change as they did in the Lok Sabha elections.
What has further boosted the BJP's confidence is the lead gained by the BJP-Shiv Sena-led alliance candidates in a record 234 Assembly constituencies during the recently-concluded general elections. Interestingly, the Congress-NCP failed to even maintain their traditional bastions, especially in western Maharashtra, Vidarbha and parts of Marathwada.
“The morale is quite high. The Maha Yuti (grand alliance of the three parties) will sweep the ensuing Assembly elections in Maharashtra. Seat sharing won't be an issue among the alliance partners. Voters who voted in big numbers for the Maha Yuti will repeat the show in the Assembly elections,” Maharashtra BJP unit chief Devendra Fadnavis told Business Standard.
Fadnavis has ruled out the possibility of inclusion of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Raj Thackeray into the Maha Yuti, especially after the latter's poor showing in the general elections.
However, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Ratnakar Mahajan said that history showed that a party which triumphed during the Lok Sabha elections, might not necessarily repeat its performance at the state level. “The most glaring example is of the Janata Party in 1978, when it was in power at the Centre. Within six months, when Assembly elections were held in Maharashtra, the party got just 105 seats and the then Reddy Congress and Indira Congress formed a coalition government in Maharashtra. Similarly, in 1999, while the National Democratic Alliance was in power at the Centre, during Assembly polls, the BJP-Sena alliance was defeated and the Congress-NCP combine came to power by winning 152 seats.”
Mahajan said that the ruling coalition in Maharashtra would have to put its act together, with a spirit of sinking or swimming together.
