Even as the formation of governments in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir after the Assembly polls was still underway, the Election Commission has announced the schedule for the Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. If nothing else, seemingly endless electoral politics is certain to divert the people’s and policy-makers’ attention from the more pressing bread and butter issues, especially when electoral contests are increasingly about caste and communal consolidations to the virtual exclusion of all else. Anyway, it is good that Maharashtra will soon elect a new Assembly, providing an opportunity to the voters to sort out the real Shiv Sena and the real Nationalist Congress Party from the pretend versions. Ultimately, splits in political parties are decided through the ballot box, neither in courts nor in Nirvachan Sadan. Most infamously, Indira Gandhi had split the Congress party, first by voting against the official presidential candidate, and later, splitting its parliamentary wing. Even though a bulk of the Congress stalwarts were arrayed against her, cheap populist gambits had swayed the voters, denuding the “real” Congress leaders of the all-important electoral sanctity. Whether the Uddhav Sena, which had broken away from its pre-poll alliance with the BJP for chief ministership, and supped with the hitherto political untouchables,-- namely, the NCP and the Congress, is the real Sena, or it is the breakaway faction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde should finally be clear in the Assembly poll. Though the Shinde Sena had a slight edge in the Lok Sabha poll, the voter verdict was not categorical. Shinde does have a point insofar as his claim that Uddhav, and not him, had betrayed the founding credo of Balasaheb Thackeray. If the founder had prided himself as the “Hindu Hriday Samrat”, the charge against his son is that he is now happy being the “Muslim Hridya Samrat”. Polling in the Lok Sabha election where the two Senas confronted each other would certainly reveal that Muslim voters had put their seal of approval on the Uddhav Sena. Again, the rival NCP factions have the second and last chance to settle as to whose claim on the party name and election symbol is greater. Nephew Ajit was unready to play the second fiddle life-long in a party in whose success he has had a considerable role, with founder-uncle Sharad Pawar determined to transfer along with his vast material wealth his political capital as well to his daughter Supriya. In short, notwithstanding the charge of betrayal levied against them, both Shinde and Ajit Pawar had good reasons to part ways with Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. Indeed, on ideological grounds, Shinde was on far stronger grounds breaking away from Uddhav’s Sena than even Ajit Pawar whose reason for splitting NCP was his own diminished position in the Sharad-Sule NCP. Admittedly, voters often mistake political parties as family heirlooms, tending to approve dynastic succession as if it this were a private property of its founders. Doubtless, all political parties, big or small, are entitled to seek power through the ballot box, but nonetheless the onus lies with the voters to ensure that there is a modicum of honesty in that pursuit. The propaganda which saw the betrayers masquerading as victims in the Lok Sabha poll may have by now run its course. It is unlikely that in the Assembly poll it will yield any electoral dividend. Other issues such as the expansion of caste quotas, unemployment, regional disparities, law and order, etc are bound to resonate with the voters. Hopefully, the Maharashtra voter will see through the opportunistic propaganda to divide them on Gujarati versus Marathi lines. Such low tactics can have no place in a mature democracy, and if allowed to go unchallenged, can cause fissures in society, threatening peace and harmony.
Meanwhile, the Congress party’s surprise loss in Haryana could have a moderating effect on its functioning as a partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s coalition insofar as the party would now feel obliged to be far more accommodative in the matter of ticket-distribution than was the case earlier. The superior strike rate of the party in the Lok Sabha poll would no longer validate its demand for a higher number of seats from the other two MVA members in the Assembly . Admittedly, both the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition MVA are bound to see turbulence in seat-sharing. It will call for a give- and-take on all sides, and yet is bound to result in last minute comings and goings from all parties till the very day of nomination filing. This too is the deepening of democratic process. Vitally, the efficacy of the recent rash of freebies, including the all-important monthly cash dole under the Ladki Bahin scheme, in turning the election “hawa” in favour of the ruling combine will be tested in the Assembly poll. Unless there is a broader all-party consensus on questionable freebies which can have a deleterious effect on State finances such reckless doles to lure voters will be hard to stop. Broad red lines are urgently required before power-obsessed politicians push governments into unsustainable debts. All parties are guilty of recklessly distributing largesse with an eye on polls. Maybe the Election Commission and the apex court can lay down some broader guidelines against such profligacy. Meanwhile, the BJP would go into the polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand with its morale restored, especially after the setback it had received owing to its failure to get a full majority in the Lok Sabha poll four months ago. And, on the other hand, the Congress goes into the polls with the unnatural boisterousness of Rahul Gandhi deflated. Contrary to the pat assumption of sycophants that the Gandhi scion had matured after the Lok Sabha poll, the Haryana outcome underlined that past-50 you are so set in your mental make-up that it is hard to change. Maybe the Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls will further settle the ticklish question.
