Fractured Mandate Puts Parties In a Fix
- Details
- Category: Maharashtra Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:06
Maha Saga: Fractured Mandate Puts Parties In a Fix
Aadil Mir: Five-way cornered elections in Maharashtra are over and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) emerges as the single largest party in the state but they are ineffectual to form the government on their own. BJP President Amit Shah in a presser said that “We will form Government in the State as people of the State also gave us the mandate for that”. BJP got a victory in both Maharashtra and Haryana and is all set to get power in Maharashtra after Pawar expressed his support.
Earlier BJP and Shiv Sena were at loggerheads over seat sharing and for the Chief Minister's Chair which both Parties wanted in their kitty which led them to divorce the 25yr old political marriage. With results out in the market, BJP won only 119 seats in the 288-member assembly, falling well short of the 145 seats required for a simple majority. But with the NCP offering unexpected “outside Support” to it, leaving the runner up Shiv Sena high and dry. The NCP’s decision to give outside support could reduce the BJP’s need to lean on its estranged and long time partner Shiv Sena, which it dumped before the bitterly contested polls. NCP leader Praful Patel said in a statement that “Maharashtra needs a stable government and we are ready to prop up a BJP government” Meanwhile the Shiv Sena which could end up with 61 seats, had earlier said it was ready to make up with the BJP, and their Spokesperson Sanjay Raut claimed that “all options” are still open for his party but he did not elaborate. He earlier said that “Not anticipating bonhomie between the BJP and NCP and thinking the BJP will seek his party’s aid, whatever happens, the chief minister will be from our party” but at the same time BJP is all set to announce their chief ministerial candidate with frontrunners like State President Devendra Fadnavis (He fought from Nagpur South-West), Pankaja Munde (She fought from Parli, which was her late father Gopinath Munde’s constituency she herself declared that she was a frontrunner for the post), Vinod Tawde (Tawde won assembly poll from Borivali. He is also the Leader of Opposition for outgoing legislative council), Eknath Khadse (He won assembly polls from Muktainagar and is leader of opposition for outgoing legislative assembly)
In a presser BJP president Amit Shah said that “the people of India not only chose Modiji as their prime Minister, but today it was proven that the people of the country accept him as the undisputed leader. Asked about the possibility of an alliance with the Shiv Sena, he said “We never tried to break the alliance, nor were we responsible for the break-up. Years old alliance was broken just for few seats.”
Now the political pundits are waiting for the formation of government and it will be interesting to watch since BJP is undecided to take support from NCP and with Shiv Sena they might need to compromise on various issues. With NCP, BJP will face lot of questions as during election campaign they were tarnishing each other’s images. Voters of Maharashtra are not totally blown away by the “ Modi Wave”, and this fractured mandate has created a complex situation in which rival parties will have change their stance and work towards a amiable solution so that Maharashtra gets a Stable government.