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Two factors stand out in the results of elections to the 29 zilla
parishads in Maharashtra. First, the Congress has lost its earlier
commanding position in rural Maharashtra despite winning decisively
in 114 ZPs. Second, the Shiv Sena-BJP has opened its account for
the first time outside the urban network from which it has derived
its political sustenance until now. Although the alliance partners
have won in only four of the zilla parishads, their tally may rise
if they succeed in striking a deal with independents in some of the
remaining 11 ZPs where no party has received a clear mandate.
Clubbed together with the results of the earlier municipal
corporation elections in the state, the outcome of the zilla
parishad polls provides a representative picture of Maharashtra's
political situation today. The results unequivocally point to the
steady decline of the Congress in large parts of the state since it
lost power in the 1995 assembly elections. Over the years, the
Congress had benefited from the absence of a worthwhile opponent
and had routinely swept nearly all the ZPs in the state. This
time, while it has predictably performed well in western
Maharashtra where it controls the rural economy through a network
of co-operative sugar factories, it has fared poorly in the Konkan,
Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. Like the alliance partners, the
Congress is also likely to improve its standing by winning over
independents in some of the ZPs. But there can be no denying that
Congress is today nowhere near the monopolistic position it once
held in rural Maharashtra.
By contrast, the Sena and the BJP which have been viewed as parties
with an urban bias, have been able to make impressive inroads into
the rural hinterland. The changed political equation is
undoubtedly due to the declining influence of the Congress.
Unfortunately, its leaders have not learnt any lessons from the
series of setbacks suffered by the party in the recent elections.
Indeed, the Congress in Maharashtra has been unable even to present
a semblance of unity. The pro-and anti-Sharad Pawar factions have
been so busy upstaging each other that they have had little time to
mount a credible challenge to the ruling alliance in the state.
Although the distribution of party tickets for the ZP polls was a
relatively smooth affair, unlike the confusion that marked the
municipal elections, supporters of Congress factions at the
grass-roots level continued to engage in unseemly squabbles.
Moreover, senior leaders of the party, including Mr Pawar, were not
visible during campaigning unlike their counterparts in the
Sena-BJP. The task of taking on the opposition was left in the
main to district-level leaders. More galling for the Congress, the
Sena-BJP alliance overcame much of its differences and arrived at
an understanding in most of the districts. The Congress must
forget all about regaining the state which had once been its
political bastion unless its leaders unitedly sink their
differences and fight back.
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