The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might be in the driver’s seat in Maharashtra with the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction joining the ruling dispensation, but its ties with smaller parties will determine the success of ‘Mission 45’: the BJP’s aim of winning 45 out of the State’s 48 Lok Sabha seats in next year’s general election.
Several of these parties are either part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance or plan to contest the poll independently. Should they go solo, the advantage will lie with the BJP as smaller parties threaten to claw into the traditional vote bank of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Opposition alliance comprising the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, and the Congress.
