The BJP’s success in the recent urban and local body polls in Maharashtra has seemingly set the template for the party’s ambitious “shat pratishat BJP (100% BJP)” target for the 2029 Assembly elections, in line with the call given by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Though the next major electoral test is over three-and-a-half years away, the party has sent out a clear message to its cadre to keep working hard. “In the BJP, it is round-the-clock work. There is no pause. The (urban and local body) results will only boost our cadre, who will now take to the ground with greater determination,” state BJP president Ravindra Chavan said.
A senior BJP leader said the party’s goal of securing a majority on its own was “challenging but not impossible”. “Currently, our vote share is around 26-27%, and we need to increase it by around 10-15% to achieve the target,” the leader said.
Elaborating further, the leader said the party has set a target of winning over 150 of the 288 seats in the 2029 Assembly polls. “The halfway mark is 145, and presently we are just 13 short of it. However, it needs to be noted that we contested as part of the Mahayuti. The permutations and combinations will change once we contest alone. A good performance in the local body polls has given us a strong foothold. The challenge now is to translate this into votes in the next Assembly polls,” he added.
Rural inroads
The BJP’s confidence seemingly stems from the fact that it has been able to shed its urban-centric tag and make inroads into rural areas, traditionally considered strongholds of the Congress, NCP and NCP (SP). A total of 160 of the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra are classified as rural.
The results of the Zilla Parishad polls, announced on Monday, revealed that the BJP emerged as the single largest party in six of the 12 Zilla Parishads — Sindhudurg (Konkan), Satara (West Maharashtra), Solapur (South-western Maharashtra), Parbhani (Marathwada), Dharashiv (Marathwada) and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Marathwada). The party will be in power in all 12 Zilla Parishads through its Mahayuti partners — the Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar-led NCP and the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The Panchayat Samiti results also underlined the BJP’s dominance, with the party winning 55 of the 125 bodies, while alliance partners Shiv Sena and the NCP won 26 and 25 respectively. The Congress and the NCP (SP) — constituents of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — were reduced to eight seats each, while their other alliance partner, the Shiv Sena (UBT), bagged three seats.
Hailing the local body results, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the development push by the state and Central governments had resonated across both urban and rural Maharashtra. “The mandate is for the work we are putting in. The Opposition lacked political will and seemed disconnected from the masses. They failed to take up public issues, and this helped the BJP, which, despite being the ruling party, was responsive to people’s opinions and concerns,” he said.
To consolidate its gains across 355 talukas and 28,000 villages in the state, sources said BJP cadre and booth-level workers have been given a target of securing 50% of the votes in each of the almost 1 lakh booths across the state.
“The local body polls were crucial, and also a challenge, for the BJP, as history showed that the party has struggled in rural areas despite its successes in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” a BJP insider said.
Genesis of ‘100% BJP’
The idea of securing an absolute majority in Maharashtra for the BJP was first voiced in 2005 — almost 10 years after it first formed the government in the state in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena — but has remained unfulfilled due to the Congress-NCP stranglehold on rural parts of the state.
However, the BJP has been steadily expanding its footprint since the 2014 Assembly elections. It has emerged as the single largest party with 122, 105 and 132 seats in the 2014, 2019 and 2024 polls respectively, despite shifting alliances and changing political contours in the state.
The dismal performance of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) in the local body polls, following rebellions led by Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde in 2021 and 2023 respectively, has also benefited the BJP. “Uddhav Thackeray joined the Congress-NCP combine after breaking ties with the BJP following the 2019 Assembly polls. He gave up Hindutva for power and, hence, the people have rejected him,” BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay said.
In the case of the NCP (SP), BJP sources said the local body results have dented Sharad Pawar’s image as the unchallenged Maratha leader in the sugar belt of western Maharashtra. “The NCP (SP) is the single largest party only in Sangli. While a chunk of the NCP (SP) cadre may have shifted to the rival faction, the NCP (SP)–NCP combine has been restricted to just two Zilla Parishads — Pune and Kolhapur,” a source said.
