There have been a number of interpretations of the recent local body elections held in Maharashtra. Some are focused on quantitative analysis, some on qualitative analysis. Everyone agrees that ideology has lost its meaning in Maharashtra, or at least it is on the back burner, to be charitable. For the local bodies alliances too lost their meaning. We can understand that it is the time when political parties try to expand their respective base, hence there is nothing wrong in fighting individually. But it made the choice for the electorate difficult.
1. If you look at the last local body elections and the current ones, it is clear that Devendra Fadnavis is the numero uno of Maharashtra now. No leader has dominated the state politics so powerfully and skillfully the way Devendra has. Yashwantrao Chavan was the last state wise political leader. Sharad Pawar controlled Maharashtra politics with manipulations and his personal skills. He never dominated Maharashtra as his base remained in Western Maharashtra and his party never had more than 50 MLAs. For long Maharashtra had Hindutva alliance vs Congress alliance but Congress of different shades generally dominated interiors of Maharashtra. These elections, with the earlier ones, show that Devendra Fadnavis has been able to take BJP to every nook and corner of Maharashtra like no other leader could.
No other state leader would have overcome such setbacks, like fiasco of early morning aborted alliance, ridicule by the Shiv Sena after destroying the Hindutva alliance, caste politics and still come out victorious to be embraced by the top leadership enthusiastically. He was criticized for taking on Sharad Pawar and run down by Marathi media. None gave him a chance. But he succeeded. His caste was weaponized to browbeat him. But he overcame all this. He is a mix of diplomatic skills, ruthless politics and organizational intelligence.
2. The second most critical outcome is the rise of AIMIM and failure of secular politics as practiced by Congress groups. AIMIM swept elections wherever Muslims have a majority. 125 seats is not a small number. In fact, apart from Owaisi party, a party called Islam party has scored very well in Malegaon. The Congress leaders like Jitendra Ahwad who thrived on Muslims support and Hindu abuse have seen their traditional support base abandoning him for purely Muslim parties. And he is not alone. Vasant More and family faced the same fate in Pune. Message is clear for every political party trying to come to power with ‘minority’ votes. Once demography changes, they have no chance at all. AIMIM has no record of governance, no positive agenda. It just milks exclusivity and division. Still the Muslim voter chose it. No amount of appeasement could change their mind. I had talked about rise of AIMIM many years back based purely on numbers.
3. Media has played a big role in creating larger than life image of AIMIM using Owaisi and his ilk to milk TRPs, not realizing what they are playing into. Future is here, not far away. Will media still run its agenda purely for TRPs or think of national interest?
4. Decimation of NCP and Congress family is stark. Congress may have saved its honour with a few wins, but the spirit of Congress is smothered irretrievably. NCP has lost its rationale for existence. Two warring factions of NCP came together in a last ditch battle to control their bastion but lost. Congress may remain a party of some standing if it gets out of Rahul Gandhi syndrome, but two NCPs will collapse into each other. Since raison de etre of NCP is power, Ajit Pawar will stay in BJP orbit till he smells a chance with the rump of Congress. Supriya may find herself in BJP sooner than later. Sharad Pawar can then retire peacefully.
5. Thackeray brothers made a very intelligent move by coming together as a strategy of survival. The emotional pull that Marathi Manoos had for late Balasaheb Thackeray could be exploited to the full for the last time. UBT has survived well to fight for another day, that too only in Mumbai, outside Mumbai Sena days are over. Raj Thackeray has lost out for good. Divisive politics of Marathi vs outsiders, abuse of outsiders, wanton violence and minority appeasement is unacceptable to Marashtra. UBT can survive only by working at grass roots and forgetting about Muslim votes. It cannot become the new Congress. As wise Bharatiya proverb says, ‘dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka na ghat ka’. You cannot claim the mantle of Balasaheb Thackeray and then dance obscenely to the tune of green flags.
6. This brings me to Mumbai. No, it was not a clean win for BJP. There is no doubt that it has finally become number 1 party of Mumbai with hard work of decades. I am sure, if it had not bound itself to alliance as a matter of honour, it could have got a majority. However, Mumbaikar could not appreciate the unprecedented development for Mumbai after decades of neglect, and it is a pity. The sheer inertia, as shown by low voter turnout versus loud noises Mumbaikars make on social media is a huge disappointment with just 7 more seats.
7. Despite negative propaganda by Marathi media against BJP, it has increased its base in every community. 60% of its corporators are Marathi. Combined vote of both Senas is lesser than BJP vote share. So, the analysts crying about Sena vote split are just being unfair and biased.
8. Unchecked import from other parties and giving tickets to them without verifying their antecedents may resulted in some losses for BJP. Many ‘families’ from different parties have lost. To me, the shocking part is that no party has been immune to giving tickets to not just one but many members of the same family. From mother, sister, Bhabhi, brother, brother-in-law to nephew, anyone is fine. This tendency of taking voter for granted must be checkmated by the voters. The redeeming feature, however, is that voters have rejected many ‘families’. Voter is not bound by family loyalties anymore, and political leadership better grasp this message.
I would say, these elections indicate a change in Maharashtra politics for the better. Majority of people are eager for ‘vikas’ and have shunned narrow divisive politics except the minority, which has chosen to stick to the religious politics that led to partition of Bharat. It is a sobering thought. Demography is the key. How long can we grow as a society if this is the attitude of the fastest growing community? Can we afford a ghettoized Bharat?
Ratan Sharda
19th Jan 2026
First published on News18 portal -
https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-interpreting-the-maharashtra-local-body-election-results-ws-l-9842537.html
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