Assembly Election 2024: After the defeat in Haryana, pressure on the opposition, all eyes on Jharkhand and Maharashtra assembly elections.

New Delhi: Elections have been announced in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, apart from this, by-elections are to be held on Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in many states. Actually, elections are to be held for a total of 47 assembly seats in 14 states and two Lok Sabha seats in two states. After the crushing defeat of Congress in Haryana, the pressure for better performance has increased significantly on the Indian alliance, especially the Congress. These elections are important for the India alliance because in Maharashtra it has to form the government under the leadership of Mahavikas Aghadi, while in Jharkhand the Congress-JMM grand alliance has to struggle to retain its power.

Opposition faces defeat in Haryana

This election is also important for the opposition alliance because the way the India alliance had performed better in the Lok Sabha elections and prevented the BJP from getting a full majority on its own, the opposition is expecting a similar performance in the last Haryana and Jharkhand elections. Was staying. But Haryana’s defeat broke the atmosphere created by the opposition among the public and the tempo built against the Modi-led central government. Haryana’s defeat seemed like a shock not only for Congress but also for the opposition. In fact, regarding the results of Haryana, it was said that these results show more the defeat of Congress due to its own reasons than the victory of BJP.

After the announcement of elections, opposition parties in Maharashtra said that the Election Commission completing the assembly election process in 35 days is less than the time usually given for elections and while the government was given enough time to announce the plans. . The opposition parties also underlined that the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is the largest in the country after Uttar Pradesh and yet elections are being held in one phase on November 20 whereas the Lok Sabha elections held in the same year were held in five phases in the state.

Who has the upper hand in Maharashtra?

Maharashtra elections are very important for India Alliance i.e. Mahavikas Aghadi. In fact, looking at the way the Uddhav Thackeray led Aghadi government had fallen, it was alleged that BJP created a split in Shiv Sena and formed the government there. Uddhav Thackeray resigned after the split in his/her party, after which BJP formed a grand alliance government under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. After Shiv Sena, disunity was also seen in Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Aghadi has been seeing this as an attempt by the Modi government led central government to destabilize the non-BJP government.

Through this election, the opposition alliance would like to take revenge for its defeat and the fall of the government, which it sees as a betrayal. Mahavikas Aghadi hopes that the way India Alliance performed in the Lok Sabha in Maharashtra, it will perform similar in the assembly elections. In this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the India Alliance got 30 out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the NDA got 17 and one seat went to an independent, who was basically a rebel candidate of the Congress.

In the 2019 assembly elections, out of 288 assembly seats, BJP got 105, Shiv Sena 56, Congress 44 and NCP 54. There the government was not formed due to lack of agreement between Shiv Sena and BJP after the elections, then NCP and Congress supported Shiv Sena and formed the government together. At that time, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar played an important role in bringing Congress and Shiv Sena together. After all the contradictions, all three important components of Mahavikas Aghadi are still together. It remains to be seen whether Aghadi can repeat its Lok Sabha performance here or not.

Parties are making efforts in Jharkhand also

India alliance in Jharkhand is trying hard to save its government at any cost. Actually, a big challenge before the Hemant Soren led government is five years of anti-incumbency. BJP is continuously attacking the Soren government and JMM regarding the alleged corruption in the Soren government and the rapidly changing population picture and conversions in tribal dominated areas. Even CM Hemant Soren himself has come back from jail in a case related to land scam. In such a situation, BJP is trying to make it a big issue.

On the other hand, Soren and JMM are attacking BJP by going among the people and accusing them of destabilizing their government. In Jharkhand, JMM is preparing to contest elections in alliance with Congress, RJD and Left CPML. In the last elections, the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance had won 47 out of 81 seats, while the BJP had to be content with only 25 seats. Even BJP leader and then CM Raghuvar Das had lost the election.

By-elections are also important

Along with these two states, Assembly and Lok Sabha elections are also important for the opposition. Wayanad seat of Kerala belongs to Congress, Rahul Gandhi had won the elections from here, but after winning from Wayanad as well as Rae Bareli, he/she vacated the Wayanad seat. Now his/her sister Priyanka will contest elections from here in his/her place. Whereas the seat of Nadend became vacant due to the death of Vasantrao Chavan of Congress. In this way, it is very important for Congress to win both these seats, so that it can maintain its numbers in the Lok Sabha.

It is noteworthy that Congress on its own has not yet been able to touch the 100 mark in the House. On the other hand, along with UP, the by-elections of Rajasthan and West Bengal are also important, where the performance of the India Alliance was better in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Five out of ten seats in UP are in SP’s account. In view of the UP by-elections, SP announced candidates for six seats. SP said that she will go with Congress in the by-elections. In such a situation, it is believed that it can give two to three of the remaining seats to Congress. Whereas in West Bengal, TMC’s performance in the Lok Sabha was good, it remains to be seen whether Mamata Banerjee can repeat the performance in the Lok Sabha or not?

Activism seen in Congress

With the announcement of elections on Tuesday, tremendous activity was seen in the Congress. While on Tuesday Congress appointed senior observers in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the first screening committee meeting for Maharashtra has been called in Delhi on Wednesday. Congress has divided Maharashtra into five zones and sent senior leaders as observers. Among these, leaders like former CM Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Charanjit Singh Channi, former Deputy CM TS Singh Deo, G Pareshwara, Sachin Pilot, MB Patil, Uttam Kumar Reddy have been booked in different zones. Whereas in Jharkhand, Tariq Anwar, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary and Bhatti Vikramark Mallu have been sent as senior observers.