After the first phase of Lok Sabha polls Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that NDA performed extremely well and people rejected the INDA block. But facts remain different as BJP is now worried more with the poor performance of its allies mostly in crucial Bihar and Maharashtra. Moreover, anti-incumbency and voter apathy are also haunting them to great extent.
Though BJP is confident to perform extremely well in seats it is contesting in both these states, it has realised that its allies may have failed to reach expectations. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has been allotted 16 seats, but its prospects appear bleak since its caste-based vote base is shrinking with Nitish’s declining stature. Most JD(U) candidates are elderly sitting MPs affected by anti-incumbency and BJP workers are reluctant to campaign for them.
In Maharashtra too it is worried about Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP. Though BJP succeeded in hijacking most of the leaders from these two parties, it failed to ensure the collapse of MVA. BJP is shocked with the energy and determination of Sharad Pawar at the age of 83 years, who is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that his daughter Supriya retains his bastion of Baramati.
Though deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar is holding many levels of powers in the constituency’s powerful cooperatives, even his own brothers are not backing his wife Sunetra, against cousin Supriya. Pawar drove to the residence of his old political foe, the late Sambhajirao Kakade, to meet his kin and mend a 55-year-old enmity.
Sharad Pawar, who has been campaigning relentlessly in his strongholds, is in fact displaying more vigour than Uddhav Thackeray, who is encumbered by a chronic back pain problem. However, the MVA, the weakest link is the Congress, with its allies bullying it even in seat distribution. Congress is believed to be more damaged with the immature decisions of Rahul Gandhi.