The brewing agitation in Maharashtra challenging the 2024 Assembly election results that gave an overwhelming majority to the BJP (in an alliance with factions of the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar) is more serious than mere election denialism at work. It is true that gauging the electoral mood is a complex exercise, both for pollsters running numbers and people reading the mood in the field. But even with these caveats, Maharashtra presents a special challenge this time.

This is because there is no denying that the mood of the electorate was and remains very different from the results delivered in the just concluded 2024 Assembly elections. There is merit in the simple argument that this sentiment was obvious, visible and firmly leaning in favour of an understandable and expected sympathy vote for the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (SHS-UBT), whose government was toppled after he made bold to break away from the BJP and challenged the BJP attempt to browbeat him into submission.

The battle had all the makings of the story of Maharashtrian pride standing up to the sultanate from New Delhi, creating some tensions that in the normal course would have played out in favour of the alliance led by the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray. This is because it was a given that the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena was the backstabber in the game, coupled with........

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