Amravati / Mumbai / Bhiwandi: The absence of a single issue to unify the Maharashtra electorate has made the 13 October elections too close to call, and reduced the scope for political opponents to benefit from the anti-incumbency factor in a state ruled for 10 years by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance.
The small picture: A campaign scene in Yavatmal constituency. Issues such as unemployment, spiralling prices of food, power crisis and inadequate prices for farm produce have receded to the background. Ashesh Shah / Mint
Issues specific to the 288 assembly constituencies, rather than a pan-Maharashtra theme binding all regions of the state, have dominated the campaign in the state of 96 million people. The presence of several rebel candidates and small parties in the fray has made the election murkier.
“The completely fractured political identity of this elections is because there is no single issue or a cluster of issues that bind all the constituencies together,” said Kumar Ketkar, editor of the Marathi daily Loksatta. “There is absolutely no connectivity between issues of various constituencies.”
The anti-incumbency factor that all ruling parties dread has also lost its sting. While the Congress-NCP alliance indeed has to deal with anti-incumbency, the opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine also isn’t immune to it, given that the two control civic bodies of important cities.
Although voters across the state say that the coalition government had failed to resolve core concerns or address basic governance issues, they do not seem to be significant in a campaign overshadowed by ego clashes between political personalities and featuring party rebels more determined to undermine rivals rather than ensure their own victory.
Issues such as unemployment, spiralling prices of food and other essential commodities, a deepening power crisis and inadequate prices for farm produce have receded to the background.
“This government has not done anything for the farmer” is a common complaint. Farmers also complain what they earn from their produce is eroded by payments to middlemen and relief packages promised to the drought-hit and debt-ridden haven’t reached them. “We have not got any relief. They kept talking about it in the Lok Sabha elections, but it has not come to us yet,” says Subhas Jadith, a farmer in Arvi constituency, who borrowed Rs16,000 in 2007, which remains unpaid.
But farmers seem unsure about where to direct such frustration in a state where 57.5% of the population live in rural areas.
Apart from 92 political parties, 10,000 independent candidates are in the electoral fray, many of whom are rebels from the leading parties—an indication of the fading influence of political leaders and disintegration of party structures.