Devendra Fadnavis, who had offered to step down after BJP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections just a few months back, has emerged as one of the key leaders for the ruling party after he led his party to a landslide win in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

After the Lok Sabha setback, Fadnavis and other BJP leaders reviewed their strategy and devised a plan to connect with the voters at the grassroots levels. With support from RSS and armed with schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana, BJP went to the voters with a renewed energy.

“Every community came together and supported Narendra Modi’s slogan – Ek hai toh safe hai. Everyone voted together to support us and I want to especially thank the Ladki Behan’s who supported us. Despite of the fake narrative set by the opposition, every part of Maharashtra came together. This is the win of every Karyakarta of the Mahayuti who worked tirelessly,” said Devendra Fadnavis addressing a press conference on Sunday.

Victory driver

The Ladki Bahin Yojana allows women aged between 21 and 65 from families with incomes below ₹2.5 lakh to receive ₹1,500 per month in their bank accounts. The scheme, which is borrowed from the Madhya Pradesh government, includes married, divorced, widowed, and abandoned women. The Maharashtra government also dispersed ₹3,000 each to eligible women as Diwali bonus under the scheme in October.

Other schemes that were announced by the BJP-Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra included toll exemption for light vehicles at entry points in Mumbai, clearing of the Damanganga-Godavari River project, Damanganga-Vaitarna-Godavari River project, expediting works on the second phase of Pune metro and a career advancement scheme for social work college faculties.

“The BJP-led alliance was successful in setting up a narrative after the general election. The Mahayuti successfully marketed itself in the State with the ‘Ladki Bahin’ Yojana; for the OBCs they set up associations and corporations. The Involvement of BJP’s central leadership and coordination worked out well. Post the general elections, Ashiwini Vaishnaw, Bhupendra Yadav, Piyush Goyal and key BJP leaders held regular meetings to succeed in Maharashtra,” said Political Analyst Hemant Desai.

“One of the prominent reasons for the BJP’s success in Maharashtra is that the MVA failed to set a narrative for Maharashtra. Apart from highlighting the work done by Uddhav Thackeray during the Covid-19 pandemic, the MVA failed to promote the hospitality and tourism schemes introduced during his regime. The Mahayuti did not change its candidates in Maharashtra, unlike Gujarat. They surveyed every seat in which the opposition failed to act,” he added.

The RSS effect

Political experts believe that the RSS played a pivotal role in helping the BJP and the Mahayuti win in the State.

The turn around has been remarkable. In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had secured only 9 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra compared to 23 seats in 2019. This time it has bagged close to  130 of the 288 seats, its best-ever performance in Maharashtra.

“The workers got people to the polling booths – this is what worked for them. On the polling day, by 3 pm, they saw the voting pattern and then started managing it. The average voting was at 36 per cent which increased after 3 pm and translated to 90,000 votes. The ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme impacted voter turnout in small pockets in Mumbai,” said Advocate and Psephologist Vijay Kumar told businessline.

Experts also pointed out that the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) failure to set an agenda and focus on local issues helped the BJP in Maharashtra.

“There has been rampant supply of money in Maharashtra. BJP’s win should also be attributed to the MVA as they did not focus on the local issues in Maharashtra. The workers did not go to the ground and were only focused on negative propaganda, which was rejected by the voters,” said Dr. Surendra Jondhale, a political analyst.

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