Both in Maharashtra and Karnataka, it is the smaller parties like the Shiva Sena and the JD(S) that have had the last laugh as it’s their members who have become CMs. Sadly, the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party, is forced to face an embarrassing situation.
Bengaluru: The incumbent political tomfoolery in Maharashtra has similarities with that of Karnataka.
The Shiva Sena, which ought to have honoured the prepoll alliance with the BJP, decided to divorce it and join hands with the ideologically different Congress and the NCP, to form the government.
The JD(S) in Karnataka scored low with just 37 seats in the last year Assembly elections. The Shiva Sena, in Maharashtra, scored 56, only because it had entered into an alliance with the BJP. PM Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah campaigned extensively in the state.
Be it the low-scoring JD(S) in Karnataka or the Shiva Sena in Maharashtra, it is they who have had the last laugh, with their members becoming the chief ministers, thereby relegating the parties, in both cases, BJP, to the corner.
The BJP won 105 in the just concluded Maharashtra elections and in Karnataka, it won 104. Though emerging as the single largest party in both states, it failed to form a government. All thanks to the political jugglery of the Congress and its ilk.
Now that such parties have had the prospects to ascend to the throne, does this development send signals that it is the regional parties that get to take the final call?
Is the merit being given more to those parties which earn paltry numbers than national parties like the BJP who stumble at the threshold of garnering the magic numbers?
Sreenath Sheshadri, a BJP spokesperson says, “The prepoll alliance with the BJP had to be honoured by the Shiva Sena. In Karnataka, the party with the highest number should have formed the government, but the stables had been bought. Low achievers becoming the CMs instils a sense of distrust and cheat in the people.”
He adds, “The Governor of Maharashtra should have asked the Shiva Sena to honour the prepoll alliance as the people had voted for the alliance. The greatest losers in all the political shenanigans are the people of Maharashtra as they have not got in return what they had voted for.”
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