Battleground Maharashtra: MVA fights to retain Maratha-Dalit-Muslim unity
Maharashtra election campaign peaks, the political gallery is keenly watching whether the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be able to repeat its Lok Sabha poll-like impressive show by retaining popular interest in its 'Save Constitution' narrative and by holding onto the Maratha-Dalit-Muslim social combination that it had rallied to outmatch Mahayuti six months ago.
How MVA works its planks becomes critical given Mahayuti has repositioned its electoral approach and planks as course-correction post-LS poll jolt. The Mahayuti government launching the 'Ladki Bahin Yojana' and hard-selling its welfarist schemes to create a broader socio-economic base of beneficiaries, and BJP-RSS re-tuning its campaign coordination are part of it. The MVA camp sees in BJP's renewed call for Hindu unity and attempts to tap into OBCs' apprehensions about the Marathas agitation for OBC status/reservation as attempts to cut through the Opposition alliance's social base.
Political players feel how the MVA planks and Mahayuti's positioning efforts will fare in the Vidarbha region, which saw an MVA sweep in the LS polls and where the BJP and Congress are locked in direct fights in most seats, could have a major bearing on the assembly poll results.
While Congress' lead campaigner Rahul Gandhi continues his campaign focus on 'Save Constitution' and 'caste census', the local party leaders and campaigners are evidently focusing more on incumbency issues of the Mahayuti government and public grievances over inflation, agrarian and
