The Twisted Maharashtra Climax: Triumph or Loss of Face for BJP?

If the national ruling party BJP, through the bizarre turns and twists of the tale, wants the citizens of the country, irrespective of being their supporters or not, to believe that the party was not behind what unfolded in Maharashtra over the last 9 days the party leadership is under a delusion and totally on the wrong track; because everybody has been getting used to their games over the last few years, from Arunachal Pradesh to Goa. It had been a forgone conclusion that the waiting-in-queue former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis was set to become the CM after a lapse of two and half years, till the last few hours in the afternoon of Thursday, the 30^th of June 2022 when the rebel group leader Eknath Shinde arrived in Mumbai to talk and negotiate with Fadnavis for the formation of the new government, still leaving his 49 or 50 supporters behind in Goa. As per the script both the leaders met the Governor and staked their claims. Again as per the script the oath-taking ceremony was to be held on Friday, the 1^st of July 2022. However, things bizarre started happening very fast after that.

 

First, the swearing-in ceremony for the formation of the new government was advanced to 7pm today itself, that is say, at least the swearing-in of the new CM. And then, in a joint press conference addressed by Shinde and Fadnavis the latter dropped the bombshell that the new CM was going to be Eknath Shinde, and not himself as was widely expected in media circles.  Fadnavis went on to say that the state BJP would not even be a part of the government, only extending his party’s support to Shinde’s faction from outside.  That announcement left everyone in utter disbelief and it was speculated that the BJP, in fact, wanted to oust the Thackeray family from active politics while still claiming the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray and to show that they’d not been hungry for power at all, not at all having any part to play in the split in Shiv Sena. It was also speculated that Fadnavis wanted to become the kingmaker or the remote control to monopolize the Hindutva space in the state.

 

In another twist just before the oath-taking ceremony Devendra Fadnavis announced that they’d in fact be a part of the new government and that he’d be the new Deputy Chief Minister. This announcement was supposedly made at the directions of the BJP high command in Delhi. And accordingly, the swearing-in ceremony was organized with Shinde taking the oath as the new CM and Fadnavis as the Deputy CM.

 

While the earlier speculations we mentioned could still be valid the question arises as to why the mighty BJP should allow the party to demote itself to a secondary position. Could it be due to factors of compulsion? Because, the only hope of the BJP to recapture power depends entirely on that faction of 49 legislators supporting Shinde who claims to be the real Shiv Sena and should they decide to go back to the Thackeray fold later the BJP would again be out of power. This makes the alliance as unholy as the earlier one looking at a volatile future ahead. So far the defectors have been kept safely away from the hub of politics, but they will have to come back to take oath, join the government and run it.

 

Another question that arises is that if the BJP is agreeable to giving away the post of the CM to Shiv Sena why they didn’t do it in 2019 which would’ve prevented the entire political drama to unleash ceaselessly in the following two and half years and would’ve ensured a BJP CM for at least two and half years seamlessly. Such questions raise the doubt that the BJP has in fact suffered a loss of face under pressing compulsions. One BJP national spokesperson has stoutly justified the move saying that their party is committed to ending family rule in politics across the country; well, that can be too tall a promise. Besides, a long battle lies ahead of Shinde’s faction to fight for the original party symbol and to appropriate the Balasaheb legacy at the same time. On the other hand, the NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar is not going to sit idle and watch the games as a spectator. Only the future can tell on how solid grounds the new alliance stands at the moment.

 

In any case, it’s become a struggle for sheer survival as far as Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray and their loyalists are concerned. They still have the support of about 16 legislators and a few of the Members of Parliament, and enjoy grass-root support in the metro of Mumbai. But the real test scenario is set to unfold in rural Maharashtra and other districts of the state. They should stop crying hoarse about their own people deserting them, and instead should fight it out in all corners of the state.

Uddhav Thackeray Resigns, Celebrations in the State BJP Camp!

Ahead of the trust vote ordered by the Supreme Court that is to be carried out on the floor of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by 5pm on Thursday, the30^thJune 2022 Uddhav Thackeray has resigned from the post of Chief Minister on his Facebook Live address at 9.30pm today which was taken live on the television news channels across the country. The emotions of Uddhav Thackeray hardly mattered now as his resignation signified the end of his government and the trust vote tomorrow has become redundant. He has also resigned from his elected post of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. What had been billed as the ideal opposition alliance for the country to counter the growth of BJP the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has come to an end too. News of the formation of a new government led by the former CM Devendra Fadnavis is circulating at the moment with some news channels predicting a new government on July 1, 2022. The Governor, after accepting Uddhav’s resignation officially, may invite the single largest party which is BJP to form a new government and prove their majority later or the BJP with the Shiv Sena rebels may visit the Governor to stake claims. Uddhav’s resignation letter was in the process of being handed over to the Governor as the last reports came in.

 

Meanwhile, the holidaying Shiv Sena rebels (now claimed to be 49 including a few independents) along with their leader Eknath Shinde had been shifted from Guwahati to another luxury resort in Goa in the evening today and they are likely to return to Mumbai early morning tomorrow to have discussions or negotiations with the BJP first and then picking up on the government formation process. It’s almost certain that Fadnavis will be the new CM, waiting for more than two and half years. It can called a quirk of nature that the Shiv Sena left the pre-poll alliance with the BJP on the CM post issue, demanding a rotational CM for half of the five-year term each; and in around two and half years only the Uddhav government has fallen.

 

The state BJP has been celebrating in their Mumbai party office with Devendra Fadnavis present and being served with sweets. There are actually three cheers for them: first, they’ve avenged the betrayal of the Shiv Sena in 2019; second, they’ve successfully engineered the biggest split ever in Shiv Sena ranks thus somewhat clearing the way to become the only Hindutva party in the state; and third, they’ve achieved a most significant victory in the run-up to the General Elections in 2024 by recapturing the state with the financial capital of the country. Although Eknath Shinde wants to retain his faction’s identity as the real Shiv Sena it’s going to be a long legal battle to do so. The Shiv Sena earlier made it very clear that they’d never allow the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray to be taken away from them. How long would Shiv Sean exist with the isolation of the Thackeray family is also to be seen in the coming days.

 

There have been protests against the ‘traitor’ rebel MLAs and counter demonstrations in support of Shinde across the state in the last few days which made the Governor order the state police to ensure safety of the rebels once they come back to Mumbai. Interestingly, the pleas for and against disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs as demanded by Shiv Sena is pending with the Supreme Court with a hearing scheduled on 12^thJuly. The apex Court came into the scenario as there’s been no Speaker in the assembly and the Deputy Speaker in charge is qualified to handle the matters relating to issues of disqualification and ordering a no-confidence motion.

(PS: The Final Twist! As on the afternoon of 30.06.2022, former BJP CM Devendra Fadnavis has declared the Shiv Sena rebel group leader Eknath Shinde as the next CM of Maharashtra!! This move has surprised one and all. Is it aimed at finishing off the traditional Thackeray family led Shiv Sena? It'll take time for a much clearer picture.)

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvement, has proved to be the biggest coup within the Sena in history, threatening to finally dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray led MVA government.

 

The most definitive parameter of such political thrillers, the hotel-resort politics, is very much there in this too: first the dissident MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) led by Eknath Shinde, one of the senior-most and loyalist leaders of the Shiv Sena, were lodged in a five-star resort in Surat, a city in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat, and then shifted unexpectedly at the dead of the same night to a five-star venue in Guwahati, of course, the capital of another BJP-ruled state of Assam with one of the most prominently aggressive national BJP leaders, Himanta Biswa Sarma, being the Chief Minister there. Dissident leader Eknath Shinde reportedly moved in there with around 30 supporting Sena MLAs which has increased to 42 (total of 46 including independent MLAs), as claimed by him on the morning of 23^rd June, 2022, for which he’d provided video proof too.

 

As per the anti-defection law Shinde needs to ensure the support of at least 37 MLAs which is two-thirds of the 55 SS MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly after the 2019 assembly elections. With apparently more than the required number the dissidents can now avoid disqualification and vote for the BJP in case of a no-confidence motion or in terms of showing the numbers to the Governor of Maharashtra to stake claim for the formation of a new Government with the BJP, the traditional partner of the SS on the basic Hindutva issue till 2019. Buoyed by this support Shinde has been claiming to be the leader of the ‘actual’ Shiv Sena, wanting to retain its identity at any cost. So, now we’re faced with a situation of a Shiv Sena without the Thackeray family whereas it was the legendary Balasaheb Thackeray, father of the present CM Uddhav Thackeray, who founded this party on 19^th June, 1966 in the interests of protecting the rights of the local Marathi population of the state.

 

Emotions ran high last evening, the 22^nd of June 2022, when Uddhav Thackeray, a gentleman-politician as always, made an address in social media appealing to all his MLAs to tell him face-to-face if they wanted him to resign that he said he was ready to do anytime, instead of conspiring behind his back. He added that his becoming the Chief Minister was only accidental which is actually true as the coalition partners wouldn’t have agreed to a non-Thackeray for the post. He also threw a kind of bait to Shinde, asking if they could ensure a new Chief Minister from his party only in the new scenario. In a further confirmation of his intentions Uddhav, found to be COVID positive in the morning, along with his family vacated his official CM residence Varsha late evening the same day, and moved to his family home Matoshree, around 9 km away. And we’d witnessed a spontaneous burst of love and support throughout his short journey home with thousands of Shiv Sainiks (Sena workers) and supporters accosting the traditional Sena leader and his bright promising minister-son Aaditya Thackeray on the streets of Mumbai. In my experience of over three decades this could only be only the second occasion of a spontaneous mass outburst of loyalty for a Thackeray, than during the days when Balasaheb lay seriously ill at Matoshree and eventually passed away in 2012.

 

Perhaps, somewhat nonplused by those emotional proceedings Eknath Shinde shied away from his intended press conference in Guwahati last evening, and instead shot off an ‘emotional’ letter to Uddhav this morning alleging a saga of sheer neglect to the SS loyalists by his coalition government that consistently preferred those of Congress and NCP only. However, despite the charged emotional drama MLAs kept on defecting from the Uddhav group and flying over to Guwahati, at times accompanied by BJP leaders.

 

The main spokesperson of the SS, Sanjay Raut has been saying repeatedly that the CM was not going to resign and that once the ‘imprisoned’ flock of MLAs returns to Mumbai it’d be an entirely different scenario as he has claimed to have been in touch with at least twenty dissident MLAs. He has also said that the traditional supporters of the SS have reiterated their binding faith in the Thackerays, have called the Sena dissidents as ‘traitors’ and have warned that they’d defeat them in the next assembly elections. All these claims and counter-claims about the numbers make this abundantly clear that this political thriller is far from over at the moment. Coincidentally, the 80-year-old Governor of Maharashtra has been in a hospital after being proved COVID positive.

 

Eknath Shinde has made it clear that his fight is to save the SS from this ‘unnatural’ coalition and to reunite the party with its traditional Hindutva partner BJP. Therefore, basically, Shinde wants to be the leader of the ‘actual’ or the breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, and does not want to merge with the BJP. If he’d like to be considered for the post of the new CM, the BJP is extremely unlikely to agree to that with the dislodged former CM Devendra Fadnavis waiting patiently for over two and half years. Further, the Election Commission has to come into the scenario later as to which faction is going to have the right to continue using the old party symbol. Whatever be the future proceedings of this number-game, now apparently not at all in favor of Uddhav Thackeray, a Shiv Sena without the Thackeray family is not a concept that’d have acceptance from the larger Marathi people of the state.

Shiv Sena Leader Anant Tare: Tributes To A Peoples’ Political Leader And A Personal Friend!

Again, a shocker. Unbelievable news that came at the most unexpected moment. It has happened to us several times in the recent two years—persons quite close to us die and we come to know about them months later. This time the occasion was a nice gathering of a few senior citizens under their Senior Citizens Club in Thane, Mumbai. A member of the Shiv Sena who attended the event not as a senior citizen as he was much younger informed me to my casual inquiry about the famous Shiv Sena leader Anant Tare that he has passed away about a year back. I was taken aback and was too shocked to ask more questions. Instead, I came down to the nearby lane and telephoned Tare’s personal associate Sunil. And to my horror he confirmed the news that Anant Tare had indeed passed away on 22^nd February 2021 at a private hospital in Thane. He was hospitalized for some illness in December and before the day he was to be discharged he had a brain stroke and later a hemorrhage. As the doctors prepared for a brain surgery, he was found to be COVID-19 positive. Afterward, he went into a coma for more than two months, and tragically passed away on that date without recovering.   

 

In my grief that clutched me suddenly I blamed Sunil for not informing us. He said that the times were too sadly hectic and that the news had been constantly flashed in the local news channels and the newspapers. Of course, that time newspapers were still not allowed in our Thane society, but we used to watch the local news channels quite regularly. How we missed such an important news, we don’t know. Perhaps it was the same divine wish that we should not know about it at a time when we were bogged down with personal issues, and then in March 2021 we left Mumbai for a few months, still not knowing the sad truth.

 

Anant Tare had been a prominent Shiv Sena leader and had been the Mayor of Thane Municipal Corporation three times in the nineties. In 2000 he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and after serving a full term as an MLC Tare worked on as a Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena for Thane and Palghar districts. Anant Tare belonged to the Mahadev Koli community, and all his life he worked tirelessly for the betterment of the Koli community, the oldest fishing community or rather the aboriginals, listed now as a Scheduled tribe, of Mumbai and Thane. The beaches in Mumbai are being called ‘Koliwadas’, because the Koli fisherfolks live in hidden hutments along the seashore. Anant Tare had been their beloved leader—a leader who worked at the grassroots and always for the people. He was also a very religious person worshipping the traditional Koli Goddess Ekvira Devi among other deities and was the president of the Ekvira Devi Temple Trust at Lonavla. His office cum residential campus in Thane-West is truly a place of integration with temples of Goddesses of Amba and Ekvira and a Pir Baba dargah (Sufi place of worship).  

 

I knew Anant Tare since 2006 when I was posted in Doordarshan News in Mumbai. We became friends at the very first meeting, without any motivation behind—like that of exchanging favors or following a ‘give and take’ policy. He had visited our office on many occasions, sometimes just for meeting us or at times coming as a guest in the news or the program shows. His associate Sunil had also been a regular visitor bringing stories of the activities/events of Tare Saheb whom he referred always as ‘Dada’, and we used to include some of the stories displaying the energetic spirit of the lively Kolis. Anant Tare had given me and my wife the unique opportunity of attending a Koli festival in Mumbai, and we were stunned by their lively culture, folk dances and a rich cuisine of the sea fish varieties—I could not even count the number of fish delicacies offered. He has also been inviting us to visit the famous Ekvira Temple in Lonavla, but unfortunately that did not materialize, and now he is no more.

 

Our friendship continued naturally after I left Doordarshan Mumbai and even after I retired from service of the Government of India. We have often been in touch and the kindhearted religious peoples’ leader always helped us as best as he could in times of our personal crisis. While living in Thane after my retirement we visited his office several times and had darshan of the temples and the dargah. He always adjusted his busy schedule to be present during our visits. On an invitation from Sunil in October 2020 to come to Tare Saheb’s Navaratri celebration we went there and to our surprise Anant Tare was present there personally, waiting for us and to felicitate us—myself and my wife Ragini. That was an unforgettable moment, and that day of the 25^th of October 2020 turned out to be the last time we met him. Yes, at that time my wife had more plans of visiting Tare Saheb’s wonderful place.

 

We offer our tributes and homage, belated as for the reasons cited above, to a genuinely true leader and a true family friend. Our heartfelt condolences to his family of wife, a son and and a daughter along with all kin and associates. I always discussed politics of Maharashtra with him, but never went beyond that which he too understood very well. Our common subject of mutual respect had been the great Balasaheb Thackeray and all the Thackerays—Uddhav Thackeray (Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 2019 with a coalition government), his dynamic son cum minister Aaditya Thackeray, dissenting leader Raj Thackeray and all others in their families. Anant Tare started his career as a banker and soon joined politics, inspired by Balasaheb Thackeray. He was said to be among Balasaheb’s most trusted ones. In Anant Tare’s demise at an untimely 66, Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena have lost a great honest leader.

Maharashtra Assembly Elections-2014: Anybody’s Game!

Even the end of Pitru Paksha fortnight which is considered inauspicious on 24^thSeptember could not inspire the great politicians of Maharashtra to come together and be sincere to voters. They fought between themselves with greed for power being the driving force and things came to such a head that the raging anti-incumbency wave became a joke giving the earnest voters the biggest dilemma in their so-far-so-good democratic existence. Now, whoever they vote for would hardly decide who would finally form the government. In every constituency the voters will have at least five main candidates contesting (Congress, Nationalist Congress Party or NCP, Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or MNS and any of them could win in view of the split vote syndrome. There are still more political parties who could be big factors on specific areas. 

As the fortnight of the Goddess Durga began things happened in a great hurry putting this poor writer in a hyperactive flurry and making him unable to carry on with his wordy curry. Still, he hardly has the time to ponder, wonder and render. So then, only a quick look-through on the main events for some of the loyal readers of these pages. 

September 25, The Maha Break-Up: Maha of the Maharashtra also means big and it was big indeed on this eventful day.  Mahayuti (Yutimeans pair, when it became more than two it is mahayuti) has been riding on the anti-incumbency wave for the last about one year and more political parties joined in to be on the winning side. The alliance had swept Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra and when it was almost certain to be voted in overwhelmingly in the Assembly Elections they broke up reportedly fighting over sharing just 4 or 5 seats either way. Anybody could see the basic reason though. Since they were sure to win the question of who gets the supreme seat of power, Chief Ministership, became overpowering and finally they could not decide. So the BJP and the Shiv Sena ended their 25-year-old alliance making their small allies scurry around for shelter.

On the same eventful day one more much perplexing break-up occurred. Here you cannot put the finger on the right spot. The ruling alliance had apparently no chance of coming back to power and yet they fought over seat sharing. More ridiculously one ally offered to share the post of the Chief Minister equally for two and half years each after coming back to power. Maybe the powerful local leaders just thought of retaining at least that much power of continuing to be the elected representative. So the Congress and the NCP ended their 15-year-old alliance. Not only that, the NCP withdrew support making the Congress a minority in the Maharashtra Assembly. 

September 25-27: Almost no major political party had their list of candidates out and the last date of filing nominations was 27^th September. So followed the most chaotic and ludicrous process of filing nominations. Candidates filed once, twice or even thrice as they did not know finally which side they would end up. Political party bosses did not know about which member of theirs filed where. Someone of some political party filed nomination and did not finally manage a ticket, and so s/he filed again from a different party hoping to get a ticket this time. This unprecedented chaos and mockery of democracy is likely to regain some sense only after 1^st October—the last date for withdrawal nominations. In the process the exodus from the NCP to either BJP or Shiv Sean has been the biggest.  

September 26: Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan resigned as his government was reduced to a minority after the NCP withdrew support post break-up. The BJP raised the demand for imposing President’s Rule in the state with just about 20 days left for polling. 

September 27: Governor of Maharashtra accepted the resignation of Prithviraj Chavan and sends his report to the Centre for President’s rule in the state. Union Cabinet recommends clamping President’s rule. 

September 28: Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India, signs the proclamation for imposition of President’s Rule in the poll-bound state of Maharashtra. Congress objects to the decision. 

Of course, you must vote, this is your most precious democratic right and you must inspire others to do so. In all, this Maharashtra Assembly Elections-2014 is going to be the most remembered state assembly election of the century. All for the wrong reasons. Much more yet to come.

Politics of Seat Sharing: Irony of Ironies!

Normally in a democracy, India in particular, the numbers become all important after the results of elections are out. This in terms of one particular political party or alliance falling short of the majority number or in the extreme case of a hung verdict that requires desperate number measures. But for Maharashtra Assembly Elections-2014 the numbers have become all important even before a candidate of the major political parties happened to file a nomination. The numbers being rolled out, negotiated, debated and bargained are just not proving to be right for anyone. 

While almost everybody has given the BJP-Shiv Sena (Mahayuti) alliance a green signal for its best ever chance to coming to power in Maharashtra the two parties have failed so far to arrive at the right seat sharing formula. The Shiv Sena has decided to fight not less than 150 seats of the 288-seat house and the BJP after its overwhelming success in the General Elections wants much more than the 119 seats it had in 2009 assembly elections. If the Shiv Sena had realized that it got a new lease of life after the Modi wave in Lok Sabha elections and perhaps might have prepared for adjustments the losses suffered by the BJP in the recent by polls  gave the party a new platform to bargain with a somewhat embarrassed BJP. While maintaininfg that by poll results are insignificant the BJP never wants to let go of the Lok Sabha advantage. Apart from the basic Chief Ministerial issue between the two it has been a battle of superegos of the top leaders as all of them see their best chance this time. But ironically, they are depriving prospective voters who could have wanted an alternative after 15 years. Now even the minor partners of Mahayuti are threatening to leave the alliance. 

Congress and Nationalist Congress Party

Despite suffering heavy losses and charting out their worst ever performance in the General Elections-2014 the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance in Maharashtra instead of learning from the experience and trying to regroup is fighting as hard for equitable seat sharing. The Congress wants to stick to the formula tried in last elections, but the NCP wants equal share—144 seats each out of 288. As if both parties have sensed some divine signal that they are poised for a resounding victory this time too despite the palpable anti-incumbency mood. Well, anything is possible in a democracy or in India! However, it is ironical no doubt. 

The voters could find themselves at a disadvantage with the elections possibly becoming an at least four cornered contest in the eventuality of all four major political parties fighting it alone. The vote split implied by such a situation could make anybody come to power. While single party majority is considered impossible in the present circumstances the most feared post-poll coalitions with the usual bargaining and horse trading could make the confusion confounding. 

Pitru Pakshais going to end on 24^th September. Maybe still a chance for alliances and the right numbers for seat sharing after that? You never know with politics as the last date of filing of nominations is looming large on 27^thof September.

Politics: Election Commission Announces Maharashtra Assembly Election Schedule!

Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath

The Election Commission of India (EC) on Friday, the 12^th of September 13, 2014, has announced the poll schedule for Maharashtra Assembly Elections. It is a single-phase polling on Wednesday, the 15^thOctober covering whole of Maharashtra including the Naxal affected Gadchiroli region. This means more than 80 million voters will exercise their democratic right in more than 90,000 polling booths spread across 288 constituencies of the state on a single day which reminds us of the single day polling done in the long past when the whole nation voted. With a gap of just 3 days the counting will be taken up on Sunday, the 19^th of October which is set to reveal if the opposition alliance of Mahayuti (BJP+Shiv Sena+others)  could finally end the 15-year-old rule of the Democratic Front (Congress+NCP). This will be the first major election for the new Modi Government formed on 26^th May, 2014 after BJP thundered to victory in the Lok Sabha General Elections-2014 reducing Congress to its worst ever performance in history. In Maharashtra too the Mahayuti made a clear sweep and it is eagerly awaited if the General Election anti-incumbency trend and the Modi wave would continue to impact the Maharashtra Assembly Elections. The EC also announced a single phase polling and counting for the state of Haryana on the same dates.

The EC notification will be on 20^thSeptember and the last date of filing nominations for candidates is 27^thwhile the last date for withdrawal of candidature is 1^st of October. This effectively means that the number of days for registration of new voters is greatly reduced. The electoral rolls close 10 days before the last date of filing nominations and therefore in Maharashtra new registration will be over on 17^th September. Potential voters thus have just 5 more days to register themselves. The NOTA option will be available on all EVMs and a new experiment called VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) system is to be tried this time in some selected constituencies where the voters can confirm if their votes have been cast correctly. This system thus could also detect and eliminate possible election fraud or malfunction.

This Maharashtra Election has been the much awaited one both in terms of ultimate winners and announcement of dates. The ruling alliance here has a scam infested background of 15 years like their counterpart UPA alliance at the centre which was finally thrown out of power after its rule for 10 years. Analysts rate this election as a golden chance for the Mahayuti to come into power. On the flip side both alliances irrespective of their chances are still fighting for an elusive seat sharing formula. The Congress-NCP fight over seats has led to a few of their leaders and former ministers shifting loyalty by joining the opposition alliance. The ruling alliance rates their chances high sticking to the development agenda and also has several Chief Ministerial aspirants.  

The BJP-Shiv Sena bickering over seats has several basic reasons: Shiv Sena has been the main regional party in Maharashtra and so it wants to be treated like the major partner; however the results in General Elections-2014 and Maharashtra Assembly Elections-2009 show that the surging BJP had won more seats than the Sena by contesting less number of seats; Shiv Sena was considerably weakened by the formation of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) by Raj Thackeray prior to 2009 and was almost marginalized before sort of being rescued by the BJP in 2014 riding on the Modi wave with the MNS now getting marginalized due to confused stands; so BJP wants more or at least equal number of seats; both parties have Chief Ministerial aspirants and therefore  have to have more seats than the other so that their respective aspirants could eventually   become the Chief Minister.

The EC announcements had been expected since the last week of August. Maybe due to the festive season with the biggest event of the state—the 11-day Ganesh Festival—concluding only on 8^th September or maybe due to more festivals coming up in the near future or maybe due to the political indecisiveness regarding declaration of candidates the EC perhaps had a tough time scheduling the most important event. At the moment there are still no official lists of candidates declared by any of the major political parties. Interestingly it is also speculated widely that the on-going fortnight of Pitru Paksha  when funeral rites are performed for the souls of ancestors and which is considered inauspicious for any new initiative is playing its part in confounding the indecisiveness of the political parties.

Finally, the winners would emerge before Diwali festival and if there is a clear majority the new government could even be formed before the big festival of lights. In all eventuality this Diwali is all set to illuminate a whole lot of people.