Maharashtra polls | Here are five key issues that may shape electorate's choice

Maharashtra is all set to witness one of the most exciting electoral battles in recent history on November 20, as the poll campaign of both the rival alliances – MVA and Mahayuti – is gradually gaining momentum.

The state’s political landscape has undergone drastic transformation over the last two and a half years following the split of two major regional forces – Shiv Sena and NCP. The political drama that unfolded in the state culminated into two alliances taking shape and now fighting it out for power in the upcoming Assembly polls.

While the Congress and the BJP are aiming to emerge as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, it is virtually an existential battle for both the factions of the Shiv Sena and NCP. In Mahayuti alliance, the BJP is contesting 148 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde) 85 and Ajit Pawar-led NCP 54. In MVA, the Congress is contesting 101 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (UBT) with 92 and NCP (SP) with 87. Here are the key issues that matter to the people in Maharashtra today.

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Maratha reservation

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil has been spearheading an agitation, seeking reservation in education and jobs for the Maratha community.

The protracted agitation by Patil, demanding quota benefits to Marathas under the OBC category, had turned the community against the Mahayuti, particularly the BJP. Consequently, the BJP fared poorly in the Marathwada region during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Even Pankaja Munde, daughter of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, who was contesting the elections on a BJP ticket, lost her traditional seat of Beed.

The Maratha leader has termed BJP as “anti-Maratha”, because of which 46 Assembly seats have become a challenge for the ruling Mahayuti in Marathwada. The Maratha community comprises as much as 32% of Maharashtra’s population and had backed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the quota issue in the general elections.

Women voters

After the Lok Sabha polls drubbing, the ruling Mahayuti alliance replicated the Madhya Pradesh government’s Ladli Behna Yojana that helped the BJP retain power in the state.

With the Ladki Bahin scheme, the Mahayuti aims to regain the lost ground in Maharashtra. The move has put the spotlight on women voters in the poll-bound state. There are about 4.8 crore women voters in the state. About 2.3 crore women have already benefited from this scheme. Under the scheme, the government provides Rs 1,500 per month to women aged 21-65 who earn Rs 2.5 lakh or less annually. Sensing the popularity of the scheme, the MVA too has included it in one of its five poll guarantees while also promising to raise the amount to Rs 3,000 per month.

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Agrarian distress

While the farmers in Maharashtra are facing a whole lot of issues like mounting debt, lack of remunerative prices, crop insurance, irrigation facilities, power supply and forest land rights, the two rival alliances seem to have restricted themselves to promising loan waiver.

Farmers, who are in the grip of drought, have not even received fair prices for their crops. Soybean was sold at an average price of Rs 4,350-4,400 per quintal in Latur market, which is much lower than MSP of Rs 4,892/quintal. Similarly, cotton in Yavatmal is fetching Rs 6,500- Rs 6,600 per quintal, which is again less than the MSP of Rs 7,122 per quintal. Onion farmers too are facing rough weather due to restrictions imposed by the government on onion exports. They were already reeling under crop loss due to unprecedented weather and water crisis.

Maharashtra has often hit the headlines for farm suicides. The state registered 557 farmer suicides from January to June this year. Most of the farmer suicides have been reported from the Amravati division of the state.

Maharashtra vs Gujarat

The MVA has been on the offensive against the Mahayuti government over the last couple of years for letting some of the big-ticket projects move from Maharashtra to Gujarat.

The MVA, particularly the Shiv Sena (UBT) whose ideology revolves around the ‘Marathi Manoos’, has often flayed the Eknath Shinde-led government for “depriving the state’s youth of job opportunities” that these projects would have generated. It all started with Vedanta-Foxconn signing a pact with Gujarat in September 2022 for Rs 1.54 lakh crore semiconductor project in Ahmedabad even as its negotiations with Maharashtra over the same plant were reportedly in the final stages.

Sharad Pawar too has been vocal on the issue, claiming that Maharashtra is being stripped of its industries and businesses are being diverted to Gujarat. The MVA leaders claim that Maharashtra, once the leading state in the country, has now dropped to sixth spot due to joblessness and poor handling of farmers’ issues.

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Sympathy for Sharad-Uddhav

The split in Shiv Sena and NCP and the alliance of their rival factions with MVA and Mahayuti has pitted them against each other.

However, it was evident in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls that the Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray and the NCP led by Sharad Pawar have the edge over their rival factions. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP particularly outshone the faction led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar by winning 8 of the 10 seats it contested. Though there wasn’t much difference in the number of seats won by Uddhav Sena and Shinde Sena, Uddhav is still seen by many as the heir to Balasaheb Thackeray’s legacy.

Both Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray gained people’s sympathy after the BJP engineered a split in their parties. This factor may again work to the advantage of these two parties in the Assembly elections.