After coming second in Maharashtra in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls, sources said the ruling alliance in the state plans to fight the assembly elections without a Chief Minister face. Elections in the state are slated to be held in September-October this year.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won 17 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls, while the Opposition alliance won 30.
Bharatiya Janata Party is keen on fielding over 160 candidates to contest for the 288-member legislative assembly. The alliance is also unlikely to project a chief ministerial face opting instead for a collective leadership approach, a blow to Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde.
Elections for the Maharashtra Assembly, which has 288 seats, will be a straight face-off between the Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The ruling Mahayuti – part of the larger NDA alliance – consists of the BJP, the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar wing of the NCP.
Sources within the party also said that Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party will contest the elections as part of the alliance, ending speculation about his future. After Ajit Pawar's NCP won just one Lok Sabha seat, there was a strong buzz that MLAs from his party were looking to jump ship and return to the faction of the party led by Sharad Pawar.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi, which is under the INDIA umbrella, has the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) as its key constituents.
BJP cadres have been actively working to increase their voter base after the Lok Sabha poll jolt. The party registered a big win in last week's MLC polls. The BJP fielded five candidates, including Pankaja Munde, the daughter of late senior leader Gopinath Munde. All five won. The Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP named two each. All four won.
This is also only the second time that elections were held in Maharashtra's unique political environment, where the split of two regional parties has led to two Shiv Senas and two NCPs – under very similar but different names – being pitted against each other. The Lok Sabha polls were the first round and parties from both sides and both sides pulled out all stops to ensure that they came out tops in the second. The MLC polls were dubbed as the semi-finals, a precursor to the upcoming assembly polls where both alliances would want to emerge victorious.