Maharashtra Polls 2024 | What worked for BJP in the state

New Delhi: Despite a poor show in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday turned the tide in its favour to script an impressive victory for its Maha Yuti Alliance.

The party's strike rate in Maharashtra has been impressive -- of the 145-odd seats it contested, the party is winning over 130. 

But what are the factors that have led to the BJP’s big win in Maharashtra? Several party leaders DH spoke to said that apart from a wide bouquet of welfare measures, which were tailored to benefit women voters, the BJP focussed on uniting the forces of its alliance parties.

A spike in women votes, a helping hand by the RSS and a consolidation of Hindu votes have helped BJP reverse its unimpressive Lok Sabha tally. 

Of the welfare schemes, the one most talked about is the Ladki Bahin Yojana – a monthly financial grant of Rs 1500 to women. While various iterations of the scheme have helped the BJP in other states (such as Madhya Pradesh), senior party leader Vinay Sahasrabudhe, who helped the party draft its poll manifesto in the state, says that the scheme was well taken by women. 

“The Ladki Bahin scheme is not a dole, it truly empowers the women. When the money is credited in their accounts, they control the money, not any male member of the family, this enhances the empowerment,” Sahasrabudhe says. 

This year’s voting percentage among women (65.21%) is second only to the percentage since 1995 (70.64%). The difference of voting percentages between men and women this term (1.63%) has been the thinnest ever. 

Party spokesperson from Maharashtra Suresh Nakhua says that what has worked on the ground for the BJP is that once the ticket distribution was announced among the BJP’s alliance partners, they fought like one unit.

“In seats which went to Shiv Sena (Shinde), our cadre worked for them and vice-versa. The Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance did not have the same ethic – for instance, in Kolhapur North, the Congress candidate withdrew at the last monet, and in Solapur, Congress MP Praniti Shinde was campaigning for the independent candidate while MVA had announced a candidate from SS (Uddhav) for the seat,” Nakhua said. 

Both Sahasrabudhe and Nakhua said that a key factor was guilt among traditional BJP and right wing voters.

“A huge majority of people felt that injustice was done to BJP when Uddhav Thackeray ditched the Alliance. It further deepened during the 2024 Lok Sabha; even among people who wanted BJP to be taught a lesson, they did not want to decimate us. This is a psychological factor, but had implications,” Sahasrabudhe said.  

The RSS’s helping hand in Maharashtra has helped it immensely. While the saffron outfit stayed away in 2014, after the BJP’s 2024 tally of 240, the RSS has made amends and helped the party in Haryana. In Maharashtra, a key RSS leader said that, the saffron outfit held over 1.25 lakh corner meetings.

“We sent out as many of our workers and spoke to people in busy areas in several cities, towns and villages. The idea was to ensure that the meeting had atleast 3-4 people attending it,” the leader said.  

What has also worked to the benefit of the Maha Yuti Alliance, leaders say, is the letter of endorsement written by 180 Muslim organisations in support of the MVA.

“One can safely say that a reverse consolidation has worked among Hindus after the statement came out,” a national spokesperson of the party said. 

Sahasrabuddhe says that small steps like the renaming of Ahmadnagar to Ahilyanagar, and Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar helped. Nakhua adds that the ‘Ek Hai Toh Safe Hai’ campaign to counter the endorsement of Muslim organsiations has benefitted the party.   

Maharashtra Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Jharkhand Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Bypoll 2024 results | Check Karnataka results here

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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