Assembly elections in Maharashtra was conducted on November 20 and the result came on November 23 in which Mahayuti coalition emerged victorious. In this backdrop, “Saffron Tsunami” in Maharashtra strongly underlines the unprecedented manifestation of Hindu unity. Hindus have restored their self-esteem by voting against anti-Hindu political parties. More significantly, Hindus, who are always divided over narrow considerations of caste, brushed caste sensitivities and voted for the larger well-being of their religion. This is an encouraging and elating reality that would have a far-reaching impact on national politics.
Maharashtra is always described as a progressive state. Popular perception of the term ‘progressive’ is anti-Hindutva. The reality is that Maharashtra has decisively come out of that illusionary image this time. This process began 30 years ago. BJP, a strong advocate of Hindutva ideology, has been at the centre stage for a decade. BJP’s ally Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) dared to leave Uddhav Thackeray on the issue of Hindutva. The performance of the BJP in the last ten years and political developments suggest that Maharashtra has emerged as the primary inspiration for Hindutva ideology in the last decade.
The 2024 Assembly election is more remarkable for Maharashtra BJP for two reasons. Firstly, the social atmosphere in the State was highly poisonous and venomous over the issue of the Maratha reservation, led by Manoj Jarange. Caste sensitivities were refreshed and fuelled by leaders like Sharad Pawar. For the first time in history, Maharashtra had witnessed such a bitter atmosphere in all walks of social life.
The second reason is political. BJP paid a heavy price as a fallout of the Maratha reservation agitation in Maharashtra. At the national level, the BJP had to take help from other political parties to form the government, which demoralised the party workers. The Maharashtra Assembly election took place against the backdrop of these two issues. Therefore, the victory of the BJP and its allies is noteworthy, which will rejuvenate Hindutva at the national level.
Coming into power was a herculean task for BJP. However, BJP and well-wishers of Hindutva ideology turned the tables because of their strong commitment to ‘Rashtriya Vichar’ and deep concern over increasing incidents of love jihad, land jihad and vote jihad across the country. Additionally, well-wishers of Hindutva ideology were more concerned over false narratives launched by the notorious Leftist camp over the past years. False narrative by the Leftist camp was taken as a serious threat to Hindu unity. The disastrous plan by Pawar and the leftist camp was to divide Hindus along the caste line to capture political power.
However, the election results showed that an anti-national plan to divide Hindus along the caste line was outrightly and ruthlessly rejected by Hindus. They did not fall prey to any casteist campaign and kept in mind Hindu unity. BJP and its allies had impressive success in all the regions, including Mumbai, Konkan, Western Maharashtra, North Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. This is significant as all these regions are dominated by various castes. For example, the performance of BJP and Eknath Shinde was more than remarkable in Marathwada, which was considered a bastion of Manoj Jarange and the Marath community. BJP got the highest number of seats, which were reserved for SCs and STs. Similarly, NDA partners made deep inroads in Western Maharashtra, which was considered as a bastion of Sharad Pawar. Dhangar community plays a decisive role in Western Maharashtra in around 30 Assembly constituencies. The majority of these seats were won by the NDA.
However, NDA’s gigantic success was the result of several known and unknown social organisations, which helped BJP, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar to defeat leftist agenda and capture power. Prabodhan Manch, is one of such organisation, which has been working for the past few years. The main agenda of Prabodhan Manch is to educate and awaken people on the issues of national interest and appeal them to vote. Prabodhan Manch also appeals to people not to use “NOTA” and vote, which it considers as a national duty. Prabodhan Manch conducted hundreds of small and big meetings across Maharashtra, which helped BJP to increase its vote share. Volunteers of Prabodhan Manch did not bother whether the meeting was attended by ten people or 1000 citizens. They carried out their duty, without any expectations. These meetings were held in cities, towns, villages and hamlets, appealing to people to perform their national duty of voting, keeping in mind national interests.
Sajag Raho was the other voluntary organisation that floated ahead of the election. The purpose of Sajag Raho was to counter mischievous leftist agenda and establish a national agenda. Sajag Raho mainly concentrated on issues like Love Jihad, Vote Jihad, Land Jihad and reminded the people of the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. While Sajag Raho also conducted thousands of meetings, it did remarkable work on social media to reach the people. Campaigns by both the organisations boosted the BJP campaign and played a significant role in its victory.
An equally important role was played by prominent Sant (saints) and `Kirtankars’, who are highly respected in Maharashtra. They awakened the Hindutva spirit in rural and urban areas. Response to these functions was a huge success, particularly in rural areas. Sants and Kirtankars are said to have conducted hundreds of functions, which changed the picture at the grassroots level. Such was the role of Prabodhan Manch, Sajag Raho and Sant and Kirtankars that the entire election was centred around ‘Hindutva’ in the last phase. MVA constituents are blaming EVM for their poor performance, but they are not even aware of the role played by Hindutva sympathisers at ground level. The 2024 Assembly election has emerged as the Maharashtra Model to fight the election, which mainly focuses on the participation of maximum people in voting and remembering Hindutva all the time.
