NEW DELHI 24 NOVEMBER 2024 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in India’s Scamdemic The Great Bottled Hoax Statuesque in Maximum City POLLS 2024 The Many Avatars of the Diva of Flavours PLUS: 12 PAGES MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE VOICES Anand Neelakantan Ravi Shankar Ajai Sahni Anu Aggarwal Of Plot, Passion and Persistence Debashis Chatterjee Santwana Bhattacharya Shankkar Aiyar Nanditha Krishna MASSIVE SLIDE IN VOTE SHARES OF UDDHAV’S SHIV SENA, CONGRESS JHARKHAND VICTORY CONSOLATION PRIZE FOR ANTI-BJP INDIA BLOC BJP GETS ITS MAHA MANTRA RIGHT, CONG LOSES MORE MOJO MAHARASHTRA BJP NCP CONG NCPSP BJP OTHERS DIVISIVE FORCES LOST: PM MAHARASHTRA S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai THE closely-fought Maharashtra assembly elections on Saturday decisively swung in favour of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, routing the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi that had gained a psychological advantage by its sterling performance in the Lok Sabha polls six months ago. The BJP emerged the single largest party with 132 seats, surpassing its last two scores of 122 in 2014 and 105 in 2019. This is the peak BJP performance in Maharashtra with a strike rate of more than 85% — highest among all alliance partners as well as the Opposition. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena contested 79 seats and won 57, with a vote share of 12.38%. Shinde ensured that the MLAs who revolted along with him against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership got elected. In contrast, the Uddhav-led Sena could manage just 20 seats. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 41 of the total 59 seats it contested with a 9.01% vote share as against Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP getting 11.28% votes but only 10 seats. As for the Congress, it had won 13 seats in the Lok Sabha polls but squandered the advantage within six months. It managed to pick up just 16 seats in the assembly polls despite contesting from 101 (12.24% vote share). The debacle meant that for the first time in the history of the state assembly there will be no the leader of Opposi, tion. For, no Opposition party got even 10% of total strength of the 288 of the House. As for the BJP after the surprise victory in the , Haryana polls, the party appears to have picked up momentum. Its welfare schemes like the Ladli Behna struck a chord, evidenced by high polling of women. Local leaders and the RSS did the hard yards rather than big-time parachuting of national leaders to sway the electorate. In contrast, prominent Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi were hardly visible on the ground in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Maharashtra mandate as a victory of development, good governance and social justice. Speaking at the party headquarters in Delhi, Modi said, “Divisive forces have been defeated.” He alleged that India faces the challenge of urban Naxals of the Congress whose its remote control is abroad | P7 Biggest message from Maharashtra after Haryana polls is unity. Ek hain to safe hain has become country’s mahamantra Narendra Modi, prime minister Soren storms back to power with record win JHARKHAND M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi DISPROVING exit polls that gave the BJP-led NDA an edge in the Jharkhand assembly polls, Hemant Soren’s JMM-led alliance on Saturday stormed back to power for the second consecutive term, winning a comfortable majority in the 81-member assembly . Soren, riding on the immense popularity of his spouse Kalpana and welfare schemes like Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana, scored the best-ever performance by any party or leader since the formation of Jharkhand. The BJP had deployed master strategists including Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and also plugged the loopholes that had led to ouster of the Raghubar Das government in 2019, but it failed to regain the trust of the people, particularly tribals in Jharkhand. According to political analysts, the financial assistance of `1,000 (which was later increased to `2,500) under Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana was a big hit as it helped JMM mobilize women voters in Jharkhand. Talking to this newspaper ahead of the Assembly polls, Kalpana had termed the programme as a revolutionary step. “`1,000 is a big amount for the women living in the rural areas as most of them are housewives and are mostly dependent on their husbands due to lack of livelihood opportunities for them. With the amount received in their bank accounts regularly, they felt empowered and hence voted enthusiastically in favour of INDIA bloc,” said political analyst and Professor V P Sharan. According to Sharan, Kalpana’s entry into active politics in the absence of her husband also helped as women voters instantly connected with her. As per ECI data, women voters outnumbered male voters by 5, 51,797 across the state during the two-phase polling. MORE REPORTS ON PAGE 7 & 8 Priyanka’s 4L victory margin betters Rahul’s in Wayanad several assembly constituencies in over a dozen states, inCONGRESS general secretary cluding UP, which witnessed Priyanka Vadra Gandhi made polling in nine seats. The rulher electoral debut with a bang ing BJP retaining its five conwith a massive victory in the stituencies and wrested two bypoll for the Wayafrom the Samanad Lok Sabha conjwadi Party . stituency in Kerala, In West Bengal, vacated by brother the ruling TMC Rahul Gandhi. Her won all the six asmargin of victory sembly constituby over 4.1 lakh votes encies, including - bettered Rahul’s 3.6 Madarihat it lakh vote margin. wrested from The par ty also the BJP . won byelections to Priyanka Gandhi flashes the The ruing NDA all three assembly victory sign in Delhi in Bihar pocketseats in Karnataka, ed all four seats wresting one each from the BJP — Belaganj, Imamganj, Tarari and JD(S), while retained Pal- and Ramgarh. The NDA swept akkad in Kerala. the bypolls to eight Assembly Bypolls were also held for seats in the Northeast. P7 E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi 5 on 7 in Rajasthan In Rajasthan, the BJP won five of seven seats while the Congress secured a win in Dausa. The ruling AAP in Punjab wrested Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal from the Congress but lost the Barnala seat to the grand old party 57 41 20 NCP Biggest blow for Shiv Sena (UBT) CONG JMM Faith in God Brings Fearlessness (+27) Shiv Sena JHARKHAND At 85%, BJP’s strike rate highest in state ‘WASN’T PREPARED FOR THE HEAT IN MALTA’ Will BJP do a Bihar in Maha on CM choice? Congress S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai 288 132 TOTAL SHIV SENA SHSUBT OTH *Vote share gain/loss compared to 2024 LS polls Hemant Soren with Kalpana Soren and sons at the Ranchi airport on Saturday | PTI AMMA SPEAKS A S S E M B LY E L E C T I O N R E S U LT Electoral mood changed compared to the 2024 LS polls. BJP gained both vote share and seats while Sena (UBT) suffered the most, followed by INC Prime Minister Narendra Modi at BJP HQ in New Delhi on Saturday | SHEKHAR YADAV Dismantling the Trump-et SHSUBT BJP 16(-28) 10 12 NCPSP Others SWING FACTOR BJP: +0.59% SSUBT: -6.75 Cong: -4.52% SS: -0.58% 81 TOTAL SWING FACTOR BJP: -11.42% Cong: -3.63% JMM: +8.84% BJP 21(-4) 16 34(+4) 10 Congress JMM Others JMM gains, BJP slips: Hemant Soren-led party gained vote share compared to recent Lok Sabha polls, while BJP & Cong lost AFTER the thumping victory of the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, the million dollar question now is who would be the next chief minister. Would the BJP let Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde retain the chief minister’s post as the Mahayuti fought the polls under his leadership, or would it choose to put its own person in the CM’s chair, now that it’s the largest party in the alliance? BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pointed to party leader Amit Shah’s statement that leaders of the three Mahayuti parties will sit together and take a call. Fadnavis said there is no dispute in the alliance and one of the two—Shinde or Ajit Pawar—would be chosen. Members of both the Shiv Sena and the BJP camps are confident of their party getting the top post. “It is interesting to see whether the BJP will do what it did in Bihar (making Nitish Kumar the CM) by choosing Shinde so it can send a message it respects allies even when it has the numbers,” a political observer said.