Its all about Pawar Politics:
Forget demographics, or Balasaheb's charisma, or Uddhav's managerial skills or RajT' rising graph. BMC elections prove Pawar holds the fate of Maharastra in his hands. It is a shame he has turned into such an evil genius. If Pawar had applied his obvious managerial/leadership skills (compare Baramati's progress vs. Amethi during the same time frame) across Maharastra he could have outdone NaMo 10 years back.
An old urban legend (gathered from multiple sources) suggests a tacit understanding between BalT and Pawar. NCP controls Mantralaya and Sena gets to keep BMC and its thousands of crores in potential kickbacks.
Recent local body elections in Maharashtra prove this beyond doubt.
The only silver lining to this cloud is that the biggest loser in these elections has been the CONgress.
NCP has largely retained its strong holds, BJP has held on to its strongholds, MNS has emerged as a credible threat, credible enough to warrant an alliance in the near future. And ofcourse Sena has managed to buy a little time.
Despite Privthi Chavan's best efforts, Congress lost across the board. Pune went to NCP, Nasik to MNS, Mumbai/Thane to Sena, Pimpri to NCP, Nagpur to BJP.
As mentioned in a previous post, Congress is getting marginalized as a north Indian party in Mumbai and restricted to its sugar lobby in and around Kolhapur. If Pawar sticks around for a few more years and MNS ties up with SS-BJP, Congress would end up like its counterpart in TN (perhaps not as much a bit player but close). Pawar's ultimate dreams seems to be to destroy the Congress.
The low voter turnout can be attributed to the inability (or unwillingness of the NCP) to drive turnout from North Indian migrants in Mumbai. Sena's strong organization helped drive turnout.
Another reason seems to be the increasing dominance of the North Indian lobby (Kripa Shankar, Sanjay Nirupam) in Mumbai Congress. If the likes of Priya Dutt complain about it, you know a serious schism has developed between the old guard and the upstarts. This development will be interesting to watch in the months/years to come.
This could be one of the reasons being the defeat of Sameer Desai (nephew of Congress strongman Gurudas Kamat) - Kamat had resigned from the union cabinet a few months back and his recent losses in Mumbai's political setup suggest a possible move to BJP (if not MNS) in the next 18 months.
Bottomline: Pawar handed BMC to Sena by first refusing an alliance with Congress, and when Chavan demanded and got the alliance, holding back his horses by not putting NCP's muscle behind the campaign. NCP won a handful of seats only.
Maharastra belongs to Pawar. Pity he could never graduate beyond an Evil genius.
Forget demographics, or Balasaheb's charisma, or Uddhav's managerial skills or RajT' rising graph. BMC elections prove Pawar holds the fate of Maharastra in his hands. It is a shame he has turned into such an evil genius. If Pawar had applied his obvious managerial/leadership skills (compare Baramati's progress vs. Amethi during the same time frame) across Maharastra he could have outdone NaMo 10 years back.
An old urban legend (gathered from multiple sources) suggests a tacit understanding between BalT and Pawar. NCP controls Mantralaya and Sena gets to keep BMC and its thousands of crores in potential kickbacks.
Recent local body elections in Maharashtra prove this beyond doubt.
The only silver lining to this cloud is that the biggest loser in these elections has been the CONgress.
NCP has largely retained its strong holds, BJP has held on to its strongholds, MNS has emerged as a credible threat, credible enough to warrant an alliance in the near future. And ofcourse Sena has managed to buy a little time.
Despite Privthi Chavan's best efforts, Congress lost across the board. Pune went to NCP, Nasik to MNS, Mumbai/Thane to Sena, Pimpri to NCP, Nagpur to BJP.
As mentioned in a previous post, Congress is getting marginalized as a north Indian party in Mumbai and restricted to its sugar lobby in and around Kolhapur. If Pawar sticks around for a few more years and MNS ties up with SS-BJP, Congress would end up like its counterpart in TN (perhaps not as much a bit player but close). Pawar's ultimate dreams seems to be to destroy the Congress.
The low voter turnout can be attributed to the inability (or unwillingness of the NCP) to drive turnout from North Indian migrants in Mumbai. Sena's strong organization helped drive turnout.
Another reason seems to be the increasing dominance of the North Indian lobby (Kripa Shankar, Sanjay Nirupam) in Mumbai Congress. If the likes of Priya Dutt complain about it, you know a serious schism has developed between the old guard and the upstarts. This development will be interesting to watch in the months/years to come.
This could be one of the reasons being the defeat of Sameer Desai (nephew of Congress strongman Gurudas Kamat) - Kamat had resigned from the union cabinet a few months back and his recent losses in Mumbai's political setup suggest a possible move to BJP (if not MNS) in the next 18 months.
Bottomline: Pawar handed BMC to Sena by first refusing an alliance with Congress, and when Chavan demanded and got the alliance, holding back his horses by not putting NCP's muscle behind the campaign. NCP won a handful of seats only.
Maharastra belongs to Pawar. Pity he could never graduate beyond an Evil genius.
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