Journalism of Courage
The BJP, which emerged as the leading party in the state after winning 23 seats, took the battle to NCP president Sharad Pawar’s home turf in western Maharashtra successfully. The party showed its best striking rate, winning three out of 10 seats in the sugar belt and unsettling the Congress-NCP which is worried about the coming Assembly polls. Although all the three seats won were against the Congress, it has caused considerable concern to the NCP.
The BJP has replaced the Congress as the single largest party. The Congress had won 17 seats in the 2009 elections. The highest-ever score of the BJP in Lok Sabha elections was 18 in 1996. The Shiv Sena had then won 15 seats. Together Sena and BJP accounted for 33 out of 48 seats. This time, the BJP-led alliance’s tally stands at 42.
According to BJP leader Gopinath Munde, “The elections are a pointer to people’s rejection of Sharad Pawar’s leadership in the state. How else does one explain his failure to dislodge me in Beed (Marathwada) where he made it a prestige battle?” Munde attributed the success of BJP in western Maharashtra to alliance partners, Swabhimani Shektari Sanghatan and Rashtriya Samaj Party. The two allies contested three seats — Hathkananglae, Madha and Baramati — all in western Maharashtra.
While Raju Shetti (SSS) won the Hathkanagale seat, Sababhau Khot (SSS) lost to Vijaysinh Mohite Patil (NCP), and Mahadev Jankar (RSP) lost to Supriya Sule (NCP). However, what was noticeable was that Sule and Patil were locked in a tough fight. An NCP minister from western Maharashtra said, “The BJP’s success rate is alarming and we will have to walk extra mile to stop its march.”
The BJP had contested only 24 of the 48 seats. The only defeat it faced was in Nanded (Marathwada). The growth of the party appears uniform across the region. In Vidarbha, the BJP won six of total 10 seats. The remaining four went to Shiv Sena.
In north Maharashtra, the party won six out of eight seats. The BJP bagged three seats in Marathwada out of the total eight. In Konkan (including Mumbai’s six seats), the party won five out of 12 seats. The remaining seven went to the Sena. In Mumbai, the BJP won all three seats it contested.
