The euphoria outside the Bharatiya Janata Party’s headquarters in Mumbai on Sunday morning could easily have given onlookers the impression that the party had the full majority it had hoped for. The street was decked with BJP flags and banners, a large screen had been set up to stream election results, and a band of drummers created a celebratory atmosphere.
Two musicians blowing traditional Maharashtrian tutaari horns stood around to oblige photographers, and a group of young dancers put on a show of folk dances from the state. At one point, the music blaring from the speakers suddenly switched from Marathi folk to English rap, and two young men jumped in to perform some hip hop.
Inside the office, even as party workers feasted on ladoos, they could not completely hide their dismay at falling short of a full majority. The BJP eventually won 122 of 288 assembly seats.
“I am feeling a bit disappointed with our performance in some parts of the state,” said Mehboob Khan, general secretary of BJP Mumbai. “We didn’t think the Shiv Sena would do so well, but they have won many seats that could have been ours.”
Behind Khan, a group of party workers suddenly erupted in cheers – a news channel had just announced that Congress’s Rajendra Shekhawat, the son of former president Pratibha Patil, had lost his Amravati seat.
“It’s both a happy day and a sad day for us, because people have not given us a full majority,” said Shailen Reshamwala, a businessman and party member. Reshamwala could not digest the fact that the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party had actually managed to retain more than 40 seats each. Attempting a bit of Modi-esque word play, he said, “Some people have still voted for the ‘looters’ instead of the ‘lotus’.”
NCP offer
By the afternoon, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had offered unconditional support to the BJP from the outside. But on the ground, most BJP party workers seemed to favour an alliance with former ally Shiv Sena.
“There is simply no question of forming a coalition with any other party, so even if we don’t want to, we will have to go with the Sena,” said general secretary Khan, referring to basic ideological differences between the saffron parties and the NCP.
“The Sena had been an ally for a long time and had the two parties not split, we could have won more than 250 seats together,” said Anant Biradar, a BJP member and national co-convener of the party’s naturopathy cell.
State party president Devendra Fadnavis, who is being seen as the most likely chief minister, chose not to speak to the media about possible post-poll alliances. “Even without alliances we have won seats all over Maharashtra and have improved our performance three-fold since last time,” said Fadnavis.
Ignoring a cheeky question from a journalist on whether Maharashtra would get a female chief minister – a reference to the claim to the position made by Pankaja Munde, daughter of party leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde, who died in a car accident in June – Fadnavis said, “I assure you that the BJP will definitely form a government and give the state a CM.”
A loud celebration
At the Shiv Sena headquarters in the central Mumbai neighbourhood of Dadar, the revelry was concluded by the afternoon. But the party had evidently celebrated the 63 seats it won with great zest – the remains of firecrackers littered the street outside, and party members were covered with gulaal inside the office.
“In totality, we have fallen well short of our calculations, but the mood in the party is still upbeat, because we regained a lot of seats we had lost last time,” said Anil Desai, a Rajya Sabha member and the national secretary of the Shiv Sena. “Because of the split in the alliances, this was a unique election for everybody. We will now have to introspect to see where things went wrong.”
Desai did not comment on the NCP’s offer of unconditional support to the BJP. “Uddhavji has said that any proposal from the BJP for a tie-up will only be accepted if the BJP agrees to having a united and progressive Maharashtra,” said Desai.
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Two musicians blowing traditional Maharashtrian tutaari horns stood around to oblige photographers, and a group of young dancers put on a show of folk dances from the state. At one point, the music blaring from the speakers suddenly switched from Marathi folk to English rap, and two young men jumped in to perform some hip hop.
Traditional tutaari players (above) and hip hop dancers (below) outside the BJP office.
Inside the office, even as party workers feasted on ladoos, they could not completely hide their dismay at falling short of a full majority. The BJP eventually won 122 of 288 assembly seats.
“I am feeling a bit disappointed with our performance in some parts of the state,” said Mehboob Khan, general secretary of BJP Mumbai. “We didn’t think the Shiv Sena would do so well, but they have won many seats that could have been ours.”
Behind Khan, a group of party workers suddenly erupted in cheers – a news channel had just announced that Congress’s Rajendra Shekhawat, the son of former president Pratibha Patil, had lost his Amravati seat.
“It’s both a happy day and a sad day for us, because people have not given us a full majority,” said Shailen Reshamwala, a businessman and party member. Reshamwala could not digest the fact that the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party had actually managed to retain more than 40 seats each. Attempting a bit of Modi-esque word play, he said, “Some people have still voted for the ‘looters’ instead of the ‘lotus’.”
NCP offer
By the afternoon, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had offered unconditional support to the BJP from the outside. But on the ground, most BJP party workers seemed to favour an alliance with former ally Shiv Sena.
“There is simply no question of forming a coalition with any other party, so even if we don’t want to, we will have to go with the Sena,” said general secretary Khan, referring to basic ideological differences between the saffron parties and the NCP.
“The Sena had been an ally for a long time and had the two parties not split, we could have won more than 250 seats together,” said Anant Biradar, a BJP member and national co-convener of the party’s naturopathy cell.
State party president Devendra Fadnavis, who is being seen as the most likely chief minister, chose not to speak to the media about possible post-poll alliances. “Even without alliances we have won seats all over Maharashtra and have improved our performance three-fold since last time,” said Fadnavis.
Ignoring a cheeky question from a journalist on whether Maharashtra would get a female chief minister – a reference to the claim to the position made by Pankaja Munde, daughter of party leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde, who died in a car accident in June – Fadnavis said, “I assure you that the BJP will definitely form a government and give the state a CM.”
A loud celebration
At the Shiv Sena headquarters in the central Mumbai neighbourhood of Dadar, the revelry was concluded by the afternoon. But the party had evidently celebrated the 63 seats it won with great zest – the remains of firecrackers littered the street outside, and party members were covered with gulaal inside the office.
“In totality, we have fallen well short of our calculations, but the mood in the party is still upbeat, because we regained a lot of seats we had lost last time,” said Anil Desai, a Rajya Sabha member and the national secretary of the Shiv Sena. “Because of the split in the alliances, this was a unique election for everybody. We will now have to introspect to see where things went wrong.”
Desai did not comment on the NCP’s offer of unconditional support to the BJP. “Uddhavji has said that any proposal from the BJP for a tie-up will only be accepted if the BJP agrees to having a united and progressive Maharashtra,” said Desai.
