Maharashtra’s தேர்தல் களம் 2024: Women and Rebel candidates hold key | Modi | Rahul | BJP |Congress

The assembly elections in Maharashtra are a do-or-die battle for both the BJP and the Congress. To wrest control of India’s financial capital, the BJP has made several maneuvers, including splitting the Shiv Sena and the NCP. Voters in Maharashtra are now facing a peculiar situation where they have to choose between two factions of the Shiv Sena and two factions of the NCP, each aligning with either the BJP or the Congress. The strategy of breaking regional parties, weakening them, and taking control has been central to the BJP. However, it backfired during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where public sympathy favored the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi. This time, the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP hope to capitalise on that momentum, but it seems to have peaked too early. There is little energy in the campaigns run by both the BJP and the Congress, while Maharashtra is witnessing a flood of freebies. Unexpectedly, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has emerged as a dark horse, surprising both parties by launching a series of schemes and overcoming anti-incumbency. The fragmentation of parties, rebel candidates, rural distress issues, Maratha reservation issue and the anti-incumbency factor have made the Maharashtra elections tough to predict, resulting in a close, seat-by-seat contest.In this week’s Yen Endra Kelvi, Shabbir Ahmed gives you an on-the-ground sense of what’s happening.