Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024: 2019 hero returns to helm BJP’s ’24 poll push

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed tried and tested Bhupender Yadav as in-charge of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The Union minister will be assisted by his Cabinet colleague Ashwini Vaishnaw. BJP had also contested the 2019 Assembly elections in Maharashtra under Yadav, who was then the national general secretary.

His return in the same capacity means that the party wants a hand that knows the state politics well and has better coordination with the state leadership that has already worked with him. The political situation in the state has complicated further for the BJP in the wake of poor returns for the NDA in the Lok Sabha polls.
The MVA won a maximum number, with the Congress topping the chart with 13. The BJP - the highest gainer of 2019 - went into single digits. BJP's two other alliance partners did not perform as expected.

A concerned BJP high command has begun corrective actions and planning for the election slated to be held in October. The deputation of in-charge is one of the steps taken ahead of the major test in an important state such as Maharashtra where two three-party alliances are poised to take on each
other. The ruling one led by the BJP has Shiv Sena (Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar), and the other is made of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar).

Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw. File pic/X

Yadav is currently the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Employment. A former IAS officer, Vaishnaw heads the railways and two other important ministries. Their appointments by the national president J P Nadda came along with nominations of ministers in charge for Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, where elections will be held later this year. In 2019, these appointments were made in August, but this year they have been advanced in an indication of advanced preparedness.

Yadav had worked closely with then CM Devendra Fadnavis in 2019. The undivided Shiv Sena was with the BJP, and the two parties together had won a majority to form the government. However, the equations changed after the poll results. When the Sena appeared unwilling to make a government, the BJP had made an arrangement with an NCP splinter led by Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as the deputy to CM Fadnavis. The government didn't last, and subsequently, the MVA stepped in making Uddhav Thackeray the CM. That government fell in 2022 because the Sena split. Later, Ajit Pawar joined the Shinde-Fadanavis team with his MLAs. The three went together in the Lok Sabha elections against the MVA.

With Yadav's appointment, it is said that the BJP will review the organisational setup in Maharashtra and make changes if required. Following the election results, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis had asked to be relieved from the government so that he could work full-time for the party organisation. However, he was asked to continue. The state rank and file too has resolved to not let him go from the government and informed the party high command about their resolution. Fadnavis, along with state senior leaders, is expected to attend a party meeting in New Delhi today.

Oct 2024
Month Assembly polls are scheduled to be held