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Soon after its rout in the Maharashtra assembly elections, the grand old Congress' leadership started blaming the humble electronic voter machines (EVMs) for the result. While the party's senior leaders might think doing so is kosher, a section of the party is unsettled with this approach of blaming the EVMs after electoral failures. The defeat in Maharashtra shouldn't be a shocker for the Congress as the internal surveys carried out in the run-up to the elections showed that the party was unable to sustain the gains the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) scored in the Lok Sabha polls, The Indian Express reported citing local leaders.
The MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP). In the Lok Sabha, the alliance won 30 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. The Congress emerged as the largest party with 13 seats whereas Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP(SP) won 9 and 8 seats.
The survey suggested that in as many as 103 seats in October, the MVA was losing the advantage it scored in the general elections. Of the 103 strong MVA seats, the MVA was ahead in only 44 as compared to 54 in the Lok Sabha polls. The Mahayuti, on the other hand, was leading in 56 seats, as per the survey.
Furthermore, it concluded that the MVA only had a lead in terms of Muslim votes over the NDA. In the general, OBC, SBC, SC, SEBC, and ST segments, the Mahayuti was ahead of the MVA. Furthermore, these surveys indicated the Mahayuti's flagship scheme Ladki Bahin Yojana was gaining traction on the ground.
Around 82 per cent respondents said that one of their family members was a beneficiary of the scheme whereas 17 per cent said that they changed their voting preference because of the scheme. A leader said that due to this, the party's election strategist suggested the MVA should promise Rs 3,000 monthly financial assistance to women to counter the Ladki Bahin scheme. "The Mahayuti had by then promised revising the Rs 1,500 per month instalment under Ladki Bahin to Rs 2,100 per month.
" Given these facts, one of the leaders said that the party's leadership knew that the MVA was struggling to sustain Lok Sabha gains and that the support for Mahayuti increased among female voters. The leader said that despite the data at their disposal, the leadership is still blaming the EVMs. "It suits both the state leaders and the national leadership.
It is a face-saving explanation for both," the leader told the publication. The Congress and NCP (SP) won just 16 and 10 seats, respectively. Shiv Sena (UBT), on the other hand, was the star performer as it had won 20 seats.
With this, the MVA's total number of seats stack up to 46. This is also the first time in history that the Maharashtra legislative assembly will not have a leader of opposition as none of the parties have the required number of seats. In the state assembly, a party needs to have a minimum of 10 per cent of the total strength of the assembly in order to get the LoP post.
Out of 288 members, a party needs to have 29 MLAs to get the leader of opposition post..
