Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: BJP Screens Candidates, 30% Change In Incumbents Expected Amid Alliance Seat Conflicts

Pune: The BJP has now started screening candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls and leaders from various parts of the state are now visiting Mumbai to pitch for themselves as likely candidates in the all-important contest.

A senior leader from Pune district told the FPJ that he was informed by the top state leadership of the party that the policy by the central leadership is to change at least 30% of the faces which contested last time on party tickets, this has caused some unease among aspirants.

The BJP won 106 seats in the last assembly polls and this was the second highest number the party has ever got in the state assembly below the 123 seats that they won in the 2014 state assembly polls. The party feels that the formula adopted in Gujarat for many decades of changing candidates on a large scale to counter the anti-incumbency factor should be adopted in Maharashtra too. The general principle according to a senior BJP leader is to replace MLAs who have completed two terms in the assembly.

This time there is some confusion over which seats will go to the alliance partners Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP. Shinde is keen on contesting as many seats as possible in the Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai belt.

Maharashtra is perhaps the only large state in the country where in the assembly polls there will be six political parties in the fray that have more than 25 MLAs in the house. In large states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh or even southern states no assembly has such a number of parties in the fray.

In most places, there are only two or three players. Six parties may be divided in two groups or formations of three parties each, known as Mahayuti on one side and Maha Vikas Aghadi on the other side, but every party has multiple aspirants which is now creating a 'problem of plenty' resulting in political clashes among aspirants.

Harshavarshan Patil, a veteran Congress leader from the Indapur assembly seat who crossed over to the BJP in 2019, is one of the many examples of this trend. In the Lok Sabha polls, Patil was asked to canvass for Mahayuti candidate Sunetra Pawar. He was reportedly told that Mahayuti will give him candidature from Indapur, however, now NCP's sitting MLA Datta Bharne insists that his party wants to repeat him there. This pattern is seen in many constituencies of Pune district as well as Sangli and Kolhapur districts.

“Every time the elections are round the corner, I experience this. In the recent Lok Sabha polls I worked sincerely along with my activists for NCP and Mahayuti candidate Sunetra Pawar. Now I am not sure what is happening as I am hearing NCP wants to keep the seat for themselves in Indapur”, Patil said speaking with the media on Monday. Patil's supporters claimed that he might be forming his own small party and contesting the polls anyway. If that happens it will be like throwing a spoke in Mahayuti's wheels.