'Hindutva Tsunami Has Swept Maharashtra'

'More than 9.5% new voters have been added to the electoral voters' list compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha election.'
This led to an increase in about 5% to 6% in total votes polled for this assembly election.'
'That has tilted hugely in our favour because we worked hard for registration of these voters and concentrated on bringing out these new voters out during this assembly election.'

IMAGE: A Bharatiya Janata Party supporter waves the party flag in Nagpur, November 23, 2024, to celebrate senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis' victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Photograph: ANI Photo

The Mahayuti alliance is all set to form the next government in Maharashtra after its astonishing triumph in the state assembly election.

Bharatiya Janata Party state Vice President Madhav Bhandari explains to Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com the reasons for the BJP's astounding strike rate -- the party will win 132 out of the 149 seats it contested this election.

During the Narendra Modi wave that swept across India in 2014, the BJP won 122 seats in the November 2014 assembly election in Maharashtra. In the 2019 assembly election, it won 105 seats. This election marks the third time the BJP has won over 100 seats in an assembly election in Maharashtra.

How do you look at the BJP's spectacular performance in this assembly election? What brought about this spectacular turnaround between June and November 2024?

There was some lethargy (on the BJP's part) in the Parliament elections. That's why we had to suffer some losses (the BJP won only 9 of the 28 seats it contested in the 2024 Lok Sabha election compared to the 23 it won in 2019) at that time. Even then, there was only a 1 to 2 per cent difference between the MVA (the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi) and the NDA's vote share.

This time you might have noticed that more than 9.5 per cent new voters have been added to the electoral voters' list compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. This led to an increase in about 5 to 6 per cent in total votes polled for this assembly election. That has tilted hugely in our favour because we worked hard for registration of these voters and concentrated on bringing out these new voters out during this assembly election.

The other factor that proved decisive is the way how the Congress' behaviour became so rude after winning just 99 Lok Sabha seats. Their behaviour became very arrogant and derogatory. That exposed the real face of the Congress.

People realised that if with just 99 seats if they could become so arrogant, so destructive and so anti-development, then what will they do if they were to get a majority (in a state like Maharashtra)? That was an eye opener for voters.

Why did this increase in new voters and their turnout help only the BJP?

This is no doubt the BJP's best performance over many decades. In the Maharashtra assembly election, in the last 50 years nobody got such a huge mandate.

Even in the 2019 assembly election when we (the BJP and undivided Shiv Sena) fought in alliance, we didn't have such a huge majority. We had a working majority.

This is a historic mandate. A Hindutva tsunami has swept Maharashtra.

What brought about this change? Why did voters overwhelmingly prefer the BJP?

There are three factors -- the appeal of Hindutva, anger against the corruption of the previous (MVA) government and our organisational efforts.

Last and but not least, the aspirations of development of the people of Maharashtra were stalled by the MVA government (which ruled the state between November 2019 and June 2022). Under that government industrial progress had stalled; the (state) economy was in doldrums.

The common people have economical and material aspirations. They failed to fulfill these.

You said that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections there was lethargy on the BJP's part. Are you saying that the RSS was not active then?
We reported that in Vidarbha the RSS was active in getting voters out this election.

IMAGE: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers participate in the Path Sangh on the occasion of Vijayadashami. Photograph: ANI Photo

The RSS and other BJP-allied organisations helped us a lot. After the last Lok Sabha election they (the RSS) has worked relentlessly (to help the BJP win the Maharashtra assembly election).

Your readers must know that the RSS has started its centenary year programme. In this year, where the RSS was founded in Maharashtra 100 years ago, in Nagpur, we have an RSS-inspired government (in place in Maharashtra).

Will the next Maharashtra government then implement schemes which are close to the RSS' heart?

We (the BJP) had promised in our manifesto that we shall create a $1 trillion economy for Maharashtra in the next five years. We shall relentlessly work for it and we will do it.

You said corruption during the MVA government played a role in the MVA's rout in this assembly election. But MVA leaders during their election campaign were charging this Mahayuti government of indulging in corruption.

Maharashtra's people and voters have understood the truth. See, both the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar) were with us and people have also voted for them heavily. This has resulted in the BJP's resounding victory and trouncing of negative narratives led by leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. Their rejection is an outcome of the BJP's resounding victory.

The BJP has swept almost all the five regions in Maharashtra -- Konkan, Mumbai, North Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra, which is considered a citadel of the NCP and Congress, the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, from where the BJP had faced defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. What exactly did the BJP do to bring about this turnaround?

IMAGE: Narendra D Modi being felicitated by Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis at the election meeting at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, November 14, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

That's what I said at the beginning. We had registered new voters who voted handsomely for the BJP and the Mahayuti alliance. We worked hard to bring out our voters.

The MVA is casting doubts over the last minute voting percentage jump between the provisional and final figures. They wonder how this number can jump by 5 per cent. They want this to be probed.

These MVA leaders are sour losers; they are very bad at accepting defeat gracefully. They can't accept their political rivals' victory. They have to introspect how they are being perceived by the people.

The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) had made an issue out of projects like Foxconn-Vedanta, the medical devices park and Airbus going to Gujarat from Maharashtra. How do you see these developments in the context of the next government's dream of making Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy?

Just like the BJP will scrap the Constitution, this is also a fake and anti-development propaganda spread by the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), which thankfully the people of Maharashtra have very strongly rejected.

The faulty and anti-industry policies implemented by the previous MVA government were responsible for these projects opting out of Maharashtra.

Now, with the Mahayuti alliance firmly in the saddle, we can assure industry and businessmen that they will get a proper business environment in Maharashtra. We have the necessary infrastructure in place and we also have a roadmap ready to fulfill our promise of making Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy.

In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress were talking about scrapping the Dharavi redevelopment project. Now that the next government has an unprecedented majority, this project will go ahead in full swing despite reported opposition from the locals?

The opposition from locals is politically instigated. Few groups are making noise along with their friends in the media.

The real people, the real beneficiaries of this scheme, want a speedier implementation of this scheme. And all these noisy people, noisy NGOs and noisy media are depriving the real needy people from getting decent housing. These leaders are anti-development, anti-people.

This mandate for the BJP is also a vote for development.

Nitin Gadkari addressed 72 election meetings this time but he was not so active during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign. Do you think that made a difference? Narendra Modi, in comparison, held only nine public rallies.

It is not the effect of any one single person. It is a collective effort that has resulted in what we are seeing (the BJP getting a huge mandate). Every BJP worker has contributed for this result.

When you talk about the Hindutva narrative being one of the factors for the BJP's spectacular victory, do you think slogans like 'katenge toh batenge' and 'ek hai to safe hai' worked in the BJP's favour?

When we say 'ek hai toh safe hai', we are only saying that 'agar hum sab ek saath hai toh surakshit hai (that we are safe when we are united)'. What's wrong in that?

What about 'batenge toh katenge'?

Uska matlab bhi toh same hi hai na (Doesn't that also mean we are safe when we stand united)?