PUNE: With the parliamentary elections throwing surprising results, new equations are likely to emerge in Maharashtra, which will vote for a new assembly sometimes in October.
For both the alliances — the Congress party-nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ruling Democratic Front and the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance — there are tough times ahead.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has already created problems for all parties — particularly the Shiv Sena spearheaded by his cousin Uddhav Thackeray — by getting considerable number of Marathi votes. Parties like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party may also pose problems for the secular vote bank of the Congress and the NCP.
Given the results of the parliamentary polls, the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly in all probability would present an interesting picture this time around and the elections would be a nail-biting finish.
With the relations between them having come under considerable strain during the recently-held poll campaigning — Congress and NCP — may drift apart further in the run-up to the polls, scheduled for October 2009. Former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has once again floated the idea of Congress contesting the assembly polls alone, a move that would not go down well within the NCP.
But NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar ruled out the possibility of Congress going to the assembly polls alone and said that this was the personal view of Deshmukh, and that the forthcoming assembly elections in the state would be fought jointly by the Congress and the NCP.
For Uddhav Thackeray, the cousin of Raj and working president of Sena, it would be a difficult task - because though Sena has made some gains in the hinterland, its urban base in Mumbai and Thane was eroded by MNS. With the MNS deciding to contest nearly 100 to 110 seats and forging alliances with local groups and organizations at district and region level, it may give a jolt to the other parties as well.
BJP too has been riddled with factionalism - one headed by State unit chief Nitin Gadkar and another by former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde The relations between Sena and BJP too is not at its very best and often leaders of the two parties have differed.
Political observers point ou that this time around during the state Assembly polls, there would be several Independents who would be contesting. The recent elections have shown that qualified and educated people have contested the elections - and though in Mumbai none of them won - it may char out a new course. With MNS emerging as a major force, the bigger parties are trying to woo Raj Thackeray . But he too is taking guarded steps.
