Maharashtra Election 2014: Forming single-party government may be difficult for BJP, Maharashtra assembly elections 2014, Maharashtra election news updates, Maharashtra political news, latest and political news 2014

Maharashtra Election 2014: Forming single-party government may be difficult for BJP

 Newspapers, magazines and TV channels have various estimates of the eventual tally in the contest among the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP and MNS. The BJP is seen getting 95-150 out of 288 seats, while the other parties are expected to share the remainder equally. This indicates a BJP government will take over in the next few days. But are things so simple? No.

Unlike the Lok Sabha election, predictions are difficult because the parties are powerful in various regions. In the last assembly election, Congress dominated the Mumbai region with 17 seats, NCP got nine seats in the north of the state and 24 in the west. It got 10 in Konkan, while the Shiv Sena got nine there. Congress got 18 in Marathwada and 24 in Vidarbha. However, the winning chart this time could be drastically different.

Another big difference from last time is the absence of three key figures -- Bal Thackrey of Shiv Sena,Gopinath Munde of BJP and Vilasrao Deshmukh of Congress -- all of whom have died. With only NCP chief Sharad Pawar who can be considered a stalwart, all the parties are facing leadership crises.There is no single, overarching point of debate in this election. The north Maharashtra campaign is centered around onions, Mumbai and the region around it are talking of some form of separation from the rest of the state, while Maratha reservation is a key issue in Marathwada. Incidentally, although the Congress government took the initiative to introduce Maratha reservation, it's unlikely to get the benefit of it.

As for the hot topic of Vidarbha statehood, there's confusion. Some BJP leaders were strong advocates of this until recently while Shiv Sena was vehemently opposed to it. As the two parties have now separated, BJP was expected to use this plank to gain votes in Vidarbha. But it's dropped the demand from its manifesto. Modi wants Maharashtra to overtake Gujarat. But many people don't agree that Maharashtra is lagging behind.

During the Lok Sabha election, the Congress-NCP government failed to retain the support owing to irrigation scam, farmers' suicides, the Adarsh allotments and many other corruption issues. Those still remain. But forming a singleparty government could be difficult for BJP although rivals have failed to poke holes in its campaign. It remains to be seen whether the voter will end the confusion.

src:economicstimes

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