Maharashtra Elections | A campaign heavy on taunts, light on issues

Sujata Anandan

Is this an election to the 288-seats in the Maharashtra assembly or the 48 Lok Sabha seats from the state? An overview of the issues discussed would give such an impression. In the campaign by various political parties, local, state-specific issues were either missing or were overshadowed by ‘national’ issues.

As the campaign comes to an end on Friday (polling is on October 21), the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had nothing to say to the people about the state. Instead, their issues were about Article 370 and flogging the dead horse of the previous regime of the Congress-NCP alliance, which are in more disarray than they were during the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress, in a total leadership vacuum in Maharashtra, sat wringing its hands for much of the campaign until former party President Rahul Gandhi arrived earlier in the week and put some fight into the party. However, his focus too was on issues irrelevant and not specific to Maharashtra — the Rafale deal and alleged misdeeds of the Centre.

Perhaps the only leader who focused on issues pertaining to Maharashtra was Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar. During his campaign speeches he raised concerns about the flood-affected villagers (Maharashtra saw some of the worst inundation of villages this monsoon), and he spoke about the issues famers were facing, especially about their financial crunches. This time Pawar also focused on a new issue as well — the closure of enterprise-after-enterprise in the industrial belts of Maharashtra.

Taunting of political rivals has been high on the campaign agenda for almost all political leaders, including Pawar. Every political party indulged in the theatrics and spared none. Gandhi, of course, was the target of the BJP leaders.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier claimed that he would win the elections hands down all in his own. However, he needed the help of a battery of national leaders to point out the lack of leadership in the Congress. “Every time he comes to Maharashtra, we win a few more seats,”Fadnavis said of Gandhi, who ignored the local leaders and stayed focused on Modi. He had new appellations for the prime minister, calling him a ‘loudspeaker and pickpocket’.

Fadnavis also taunted Pawar about the manner in which most stalwarts had quit the NCP and joined the BJP ahead of the elections. “Only those remain with him who we could not accommodate,” he said. It was an expansion on BJP President and Union home minister Amit Shah's earlier taunt that by the end of the elections only two persons will remain in the NCP and the Congress — Pawar and Prithviraj Chavan. “I think I must be coming in the nightmares of Modi and Shah most of the days,” Pawar shot back even as he did not spare Fadnavis for his pretences and lack of performance.

Both leaders were in Nashik, an industrial hub and a green belt all at once on October 17. Fadnavis had “adopted" Nashik during the 2017 municipal elections but despite his party winning the polls there has not been much improvement in its status. Pawar pointed out to the auto industries in this region shutting down in a large measure, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facing closure, grape and onion farmers suffering excruciatingly low returns and said: “A foster father who cannot take care of his adopted child? You do not need a foster father of that kind at all!”

Even at the local level there was much gracelessness on display. Education minister Vinid Tawde poked fun at former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan for losing the Lok Sabha elections from his home turf of Nanded. “He is a spent force and should not contest ever again.” Days later Chavan got a ticket to the assembly from the Congress, Tawde was denied one by the BJP. Chavan was quick to point out how his party considered him worthy while Tawde’s party did not have the same confidence in him.

In the midst of all this taunting and needling, there was a very late promise of job-creation by the BJP, which released its manifesto days before the election. This created a new controversy with a promise of a Bharat Ratna for RSS ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar; the BJP would have made this promise with the hope of winning the hearts of Maharashtrians.

What about the other issues that affect their daily lives? Who will speak about those issues? The roads, the environment (the government recently cut down hundreds of trees in the Aarey forests), the collapsing financial institutions (e.g PMC Bank), the disappearing small and medium enterprises? Many political leaders did not speak about these pressing issues.

In the midst of all this diversion, especially from the ruling BJP and its government, on October 17, the electorate got to hear former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the precarious economic situation of the state. It is but natural if the people expected Singh to have a solution to the economic woes they are facing — but, there is little he can do now other than highlight the danger.

Sujata Anandan is a senior journalist and author. Views are personal.