Maharashtra Election: Decoding Vidarbha “The Mother of All Battle”
In Maharashtra, it is always said that whoever wins Vidarbha wins the state, as it is the second-biggest region in the state of Maharashtra with 62 Vidhan Sabha seats.
Image Source: Business Today
There are 11 districts in Vidarbha, of which Nagpur is a major urban center in the Vidarbha region. The headquarters of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is in Nagpur. The political significance of Vidarbha is very important, as many political parties are led by leaders of Vidarbha, such as Chandrashekhar Bawankule (BJP) and Nana Patole (Congress). Deputy CM of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis as well as Leader of Opposition of State Vijay Wadettiwar also come from Vidarbha.
The Vidarbha Factor
In the 2014 Assembly election, the BJP managed to win 44 seats out of 62 seats and formed its government in the state with 120 seats with the support of Shiv Sena, but interestingly, in 2019, when the BJP lost its ground in Vidarbha, it only managed to win 29 seats out of 62 seats, and their tally dropped to 105 seats. After that, Shiv Sena saw an opportunity and joined hands with Congress and the NCP, and Uddav Thackeray became Chief Minister of State.
Vidarbha has traditionally been a stronghold of Congress, but Congress had lost its ground in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it regained its ground by winning 7 out of 10 seats with its alliance.
According to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi), the alliance of Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), and Shiv Sena (UUddhav Thackeray), won 30 Lok Sabha seats out of 48, which is a major setback for the NDA, the alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, and they only managed to win 17 seats.
Cast Combination VS Welfare Schemes
In Vidarbha, the cast combination is very important for all political parties. The major cast groups of Vidarbha are Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, and Muslims. The three groups, Kunbi, Teli, and Mali, play major political roles, and they influence the electoral outcome because the three groups compose 50% of the electorate. The DMK Combination (Dalit, Muslim, Kunbi) are traditionally core voters of Congress in Vidarbha; this is the reason the most successful party in Vidarbha historically But after 2014, the BJP started dominating this region because of their welfare schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Kisan. Samman Nidhi
Now the BJP is dependent on the Ladki Bhen Yojna, in which every woman gets 1500 every month. Because of this, voters will vote for them, and Congress is Dependent on their DMK combination, which is Dalit, Muslim, and Kunbi. This combination helps them to win the Lok Sabha election in Vidarbha.
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