Key Points
About a year later, when the Congress announced guarantees like cash assistance, free LPG cylinders and bus rides for women before the Karnataka Assembly election, the PM said, A country cannot be run like thisrevdiculture is essentially eating away the resources of future generations..
Its understandable, given how the three Mahayuti (grand alliance) constituentsthe BJP, Shindes Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawars Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)together won only 17 of the 48 seats in the state, down from 41 that the National Democratic Alliance had won in 2019...
The Shinde camp might claim a draw, but the result was certainly a let-down for a leader that had walked away with 40 of 56 MLAs and 13 of 18 MPs of the united Sena.Thiswas despite Modis popularity, whichtypicallyswings a considerable chunk of voters in the NDAs favour in Lok Sabha elections..
If Shinde wasnt embarrassed by his partys underwhelming performance, its because his partners fared worse: the BJPdroppedto nine seats from 23 in the 2019 polls and Ajit Pawars NCP managed just one seat...
Not that Shinde can swing Maratha votes.Itdidnt help MahayutiscauseintheMarathwada regionhotbed of reservation movementwhere the opposition coalition theMaha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) won seven of the eight seats.Yet, the BJP has to go into the Assembly polls with Shinde as its faceunless it can prop up another Maratha face and dare the Sena leader to quit the alliance..
