Prime Minister Modi
As soon as Diwali and Chhath were over, Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a mission to win the political battle of Maharashtra. Prime Minister Modi will launch the election campaign for the Maharashtra assembly through public meetings in Dhule and Nashik on Friday. Dhule and Nashik districts are located in the northern region of Maharashtra. In this way, this rally is considered a strategy of the BJP to maintain its control of the northern seats of Maharashtra, its strongest bastion, but due to the change in equation, the political tension is no less for the BJP in northern Maharashtra .
For the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP has already scheduled PM Modi’s rally between November 8 and 14. Prime Minister Modi will begin his election campaign from Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his first rally in Maharashtra in Dhule and then the second rally is scheduled in Nashik. Prime Minister Modi will be seen targeting north Maharashtra through rallies in Dhule and Nashik.
Prime Minister Modi’s rally schedule
Prime Minister Modi will try to woo Marathamwada with rallies in Akola and Nanded on November 9. After this, on November 12, PM Modi will try to win seats in western Maharashtra by holding rallies in Chandrapur, Chimur, Solapur and Pune. After this, on November 14, PM Modi will address rallies in Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai. Thus, a plan has been drawn up to fill 36 seats in the Mumbai belt, but even after that protests will be held.
North Maharashtra is a strong BJP stronghold
There are a total of 35 assembly seats in north Maharashtra. This area was once a Congress stronghold, but the BJP and Shiv Sena have managed to strengthen their control. This region has played an important role in the rise of the BJP in Maharashtra. In the 2014 assembly elections, out of 35 seats in north Maharashtra, BJP won 14, Shiv Sena 7, Congress 7, NCP 5 and others won 2 seats.
In 2019, out of 35 seats in north Maharashtra, the BJP managed to win 20, Shiv Sena 6, Congress 5 seats and NCP four seats. After the breakup of Shiv Sena, two of Uddhav’s MLAs had gone with Shinde. Thus, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena has six MLAs, while Shinde’s Shiv Sena has two MLAs. After the split between Shiv Sena and NCP, the strength of these two can be estimated on the basis of the number of MLAs who went with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
BJP tension rose in north Maharashtra
Despite being a strong BJP bastion and a strong RSS network, the BJP is struggling in the northern Maharashtra region, known for onion production, which plays a vital role in determining the state’s political fortunes. The BJP knows that the unrest among farmers in the northern Maharashtra region, comprising 35 constituencies of Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar, cannot be taken lightly. Dissatisfaction among farmers and efforts to consolidate Muslim-Maratha votes against the BJP may pose significant challenges to the BJP.
However, North Maharashtra was once its stronghold through its Other Backward Classes (OBC) vote bank. Veteran OBC leaders like Gopinath Munde and Eknath Khadse had their own good support base. The BJP had established its influence in this area thanks to the Madhav (Mali, Dhangar, Vanjari) equation in collaboration with them. This equation suffered a setback after the untimely demise of Gopinath Munde in 2014 and in 2019, the BJP canceled the candidacy of Eknath Khadse, so he left the party after the elections and went with Sharad Pawar.
BJP worried about OBC votes
Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde was also aggressive towards BJP leaders after losing the assembly elections. Due to this, the BJP’s strong OBC vote bank seemed to be moving away from him. Its effect was seen in the last Lok Sabha elections. Apart from this, Lasalgaon area in Nashik in northern Maharashtra is the largest onion market in the country, which is already angry due to the fair price. In such a situation, the BJP has definitely removed the resentment towards Pankaja Munde by making her an MLC, but there is still concern about getting OBC votes.
The anti-incumbency wave in north Maharashtra and anger among farmers had hurt the BJP and its allies in the region. In 2010, the BJP got 39.5 per cent of the rural votes in Maharashtra and this time it got only 35 per cent of the rural votes. From this one can clearly understand how the party is concerned about saving the northern stronghold of Maharashtra. Therefore, Prime Minister Modi is busy fixing his political equation by sounding the electoral bugle in northern Maharashtra. In such a situation, Prime Minister Modi held a public meeting in Dhule and fiercely attacked Maha Vikas Aghadi.
