MUMBAI: Hours before the counting began in the crucial Maharashtra Assembly polls, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar convened a virtual meeting with his party’s candidates on Friday evening.In the meeting, Pawar instructed them not to leave the counting tables unless all votes were counted. He also instructed the winning candidates to rush to Mumbai immediately after they got their MLA certificates.Maharashtra is set to seal its fate tomorrow, but so are its main political players. Its a make-or-break election for heavyweights like Sharad Pawar, for whom this is also a matter of cementing their political legacy. With most of the exit polls predicting an edge for the ruling NDA alliance, the opposition parties are trying to calm down and work systematically amid soaring tensions. Pawar, in the meeting, asked his party candidates “not to take extra load” of the exit polls and expressed hope that the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi will win 157 out of the 288 seats. The Congress war room in Maharashtra is also witnessing similar scenes as the party’s state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala convened a virtual meeting with state leaders and candidates to ensure that ‘nothing goes wrong.’ He also made similar instructions to the party candidates asking them not to leave the counting booths till the last vote is counted. Besides, the party has also reportedly asked private charter service providers to extend their services to bring all its elected MLAs to Mumbai.Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, former CM of Chhatisgarh Bhupesh Bhagel and Dr Parmeshawara are in charge of handling the post-election scenario in Maharashtra. Chennithala is also closely monitoring the situation. Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) is making plans to settle some scores. “If we get more than 40 seats, then we will insist on declaring Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister at least for one year till the BMC election,” said a Sena (UBT) leader. “We want to see him as CM again because he was unceremoniously asked to resign by toppling his government,” he explained. On the other hand, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shidne is keeping a close eye on the Independent candidates and is also reportedly exploring other options, in case BJP has other plans regarding the CM.Hinting at such a situation, Shiv Sena MLA and a close aide of CM Shinde Sanjay Shirsart, said that the party will follow whatever decision is taken by him. He reiterated that Shinde’s word will be the final when asked about joining hands with Sharad Pawar post the results. Meanwhile, the BJP has formed a six-member team of its leaders to get in touch with the Independent candidates who are likely to win. “We were told that once a rebel who was affiliated to the BJP wins, then immediate talks should be initiated regarding his or her demands which will be then conveyed to the top leadership,” a senior BJP leader told TNIE on condition of anonymity. Did the ‘Ladli Bahena’ not work?Meanwhile, political observers believe that the gender-wise voter turnout in the Maharashtra state assembly elections raises serious questions about the impact of the government’s much-hyped Ladli Bahena scheme.According to data from the Election Commission of India, 3.34 crore of the total voters who participated in the assembly elections were males as compared to 3.06 crore female voters. The scheme, which was expected to pull a large number of women to the polling booths and increase the vote bank of the NDA alliance seemed to have not met the expectations as the number of female voters were 4 per cent less than that of male voters. “It was expected that the ‘Ladli Bahena’ scheme would help increase the voting percentage among the female voters but the data of the election commission hint at something else,” noted a political observer. “This raises several questions regarding the impact of the scheme on the women of the state as BJP was trying to develop them as vote banks… things will be much clearer after the results are out,” he said. He also pointed out that the rural distress could have been a factor for the increase in male voter count. “Farmers, particularly soyabean, and cotton farmers were unhappy with the falling rates of their produce below the Minimum support price (MSP). If that anger has converted against the ruling party, then we can safely say that the rural distress has overshadowed the Ladli Bahena scheme which is why men come out in large numbers to cast their votes,” he noted.According to the Election Commission of India, 66.04 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the recently concluded elections. It showed a slight increase from the 61.4 per cent recorded in the 2019 state assembly elections and the 61.39 per cent recorded in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
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