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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  BJP, Shiv Sena vote share hints at Maharashtra shift to right-wing politics
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BJP, Shiv Sena vote share hints at Maharashtra shift to right-wing politics

Voters, especially those under the age of 35, are interested only in who can deliver on issues like road, power and healthcare, said an analyst

While the BJP won 122 seats and the Shiv Sena 63 seats in the 288-member state Assembly, securing 27.8% and 19.3% of votes polled, respectively. Photo: HTPremium
While the BJP won 122 seats and the Shiv Sena 63 seats in the 288-member state Assembly, securing 27.8% and 19.3% of votes polled, respectively. Photo: HT

Mumbai: Maharashtra tilted to the right in the 2014 Assembly elections, with right wing parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena taking the top two spots in the state, both in terms of seats and vote share.

While BJP won 122 seats and the Shiv Sena 63 seats in the 288-member state assembly, securing 27.8% and 19.3% of votes polled, respectively.

Till 1990, Maharashtra’s ruling and opposition spaces used to be occupied by the left-of-centre parties, with the Congress in power and left-liberal parties like Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), Janata Dal and Republican Party of India in opposition. Right-wing parties were yet to make a mark in assembly elections.

However, in 1990, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance with 94 seats occupied the opposition space, while the left-liberal parties won only 38 seats, marking the beginning of their end. Since then, state politics has been divided between the centrist bloc of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the right wing bloc of Shiv Sena-BJP.

Except for 1995-1999, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine remained in opposition during this period. But in the 2014 assembly election, the Congress and the NCP, which ruled the state for 15 years, were pushed to the third and fourth spots, winning 43 and 41 seats, respectively.

Aruna Pendse, professor of political science at Mumbai University’s civics and political science department, said, “Growing urbanization has brought this rightward change in state politics. Those living in cities and towns, especially those under the age of 35, don’t care about high-sounding ideals like socialism and secularism among others." These voters, Pendse said, are interested only in who can deliver on issues like road, power and healthcare, and elect those who promises them.

Urbanization also changed the character of caste groups such as Marathas and other backward classes, (OBCs) who used to be firmly with the Congress-NCP.

After the entry of these castes into the urban middle class, they, too, started feeling that their interests were more secure with the BJP-Sena, Pendse observed.

However, social activist and political analyst Vishwambhar Choudhari said, “The success of the Sena and the BJP is not because of right wing politics, but because they toned down their right wing rhetoric to a large extent as they mostly spoke about development issues and hardly spoke about pet Hindutva issues."

It is also perhaps the sweetest victory for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate organizations known as Sangh Parivar (family), of which the BJP is a part. With the 2014 assembly election, the RSS ideology has become the mainstream ideology of Maharashtra’s polity, the state where it was born.

The Maharashtrian Brahmin imprint on the RSS is still intact in many ways. Out of six RSS chiefs so far including incumbent Mohan Bhagwat, four were Maharashtrian Brahmins. Currently, the second-most important post in RSS, that is Sarkaryavaha or general secretary, is held by Bhayyaji Joshi, another Maharashtrian Brahmin.

The Sangh and its affiliates became political pariahs after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, which was carried out by Nathuram Godse, who was previously a member of the RSS. However, things started to change after the RSS joined Jayaprakash Narayan’s Navnirman Movement in the 1970s. Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, merged with Narayan’s Janata Party to take on the Indira Gandhi-led Congress in 1977 general election, which took place against the backdrop of emergency.

Interestingly, another school of Hindutva in the state was represented by Hindu Mahasabha, led by V.D. Savarkar, often called Veer Savarkar. But unlike the Sangh Parivar, its appeal never grew beyond Brahmins in the state.

Avinash Dharmadhikari, a social activist and former bureaucrat said, “Numbers clearly state that right-wing ideology has become the mainstream ideology in Maharashtra and to make this happen, the RSS has relentlessly worked for more than eight decades. It attempted to reach out to various sections of society through its various organisations such as Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh in case of labourers, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram for tribals and so on."

Nagpur-based RSS watcher Dilip Deodhar said, “This is a victory of the Deoras school in RSS (third RSS chief late Balasaheb Deoras) over Golwalkar school (second RSS chief and ideologue late Guru Madhav Golwalkar). While the Deoras school believes in Hindu civilization, Golwalkar school believes in Hindu religion."

The line that divides the two may be very thin, but it is an important distinction for those who want to understand the RSS. While the first one has a more nuanced approach towards Hindutva and try to equate Hindutva with development, the latter wants to stick to rituals of Hinduism, Deodhar pointed out.

Maharashtra BJP unit’s chief spokesman Madhav Bhandari said, “It is the sweetest victory for us, as we have firmly defeated pseudo-secular forces in the state of our origin."

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Published: 19 Oct 2014, 08:01 PM IST
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