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 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 its attempt to browbeat him into submission.

The battle had all the makings of a story of Maharashtrian pride standing up to the sultanate in New Delhi, creating some tensions that in the normal course would have played out in favour of the alliance led by Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena. This is because it was a given that the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena was the backstabber in the game, coupled with Ajit Pawar of the NCP betraying his uncle, the veteran Sharad Pawar, to join ranks with the BJP.........

© National Herald