Watch Nidhi Razdan: How BJP and allies won Maharashtra

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00:00It has been a resounding victory for the BJP and its allies in Maharashtra and a win for

00:08the JMM Congress combined in Jharkhand. So on the face of it, it looks like it's 50-50.

00:14But actually it's not. First of all, the Maharashtra victory of the BJP, Ajit Pawar NCP and the

00:21Shinde Sena cannot be overstated. This is a huge state. It sends the second largest

00:26number of seats to the Indian Parliament. It is where the financial capital of India

00:31lies and therefore Maharashtra politically is a very, very significant state. The fact

00:37that the BJP and its allies have won so resoundingly therefore is important. And the fact that

00:43the opposition has not done well at all and has been routed is something that we need

00:47to look at in more detail. So despite the Jharkhand win, there's actually not that much

00:53consolation for the Congress in particular. So my first takeaway from this election is

00:58that the narrative that had been said that the BJP had been weakened after winning just

01:02240 Lok Sabha seats, that narrative is now finished. The BJP is resurgent. It won Haryana

01:09unexpectedly and has done hugely well in Maharashtra. Second, the Congress is significantly weakened.

01:15Even though the party did well by its standards in the Lok Sabha by winning 99 seats, they

01:21have faltered in state elections after that with the exception of Jharkhand. But even

01:25in Jharkhand, they've essentially ridden on the back of the JMM, which is the party that

01:31has really led this victory in the state of Jharkhand. In Maharashtra, they have been

01:36decimated. They lost Haryana. They did badly in Jammu and Kashmir as well. And therefore,

01:41the Congress should have its alarm bells ringing once again. What is going wrong for the party

01:46is something that they really need to look at. The third takeaway is just the BJP's electoral

01:52machinery. It is massive and they have proved that despite electoral setbacks like in the

01:57Lok Sabha polls, they do not let that hold them back. In Maharashtra, even though they didn't do

02:03well in the Lok Sabha elections only six months ago, the BJP and the RSS worked very, very hard

02:09on the ground in order to consolidate OBC votes in their favor, holding small meetings, the welfare

02:15schemes for women, etc. These were things that they really worked on quietly on the ground level

02:20and ensure that their message went through. Contrast that with the opposition, which had

02:25been talking about a caste census, the threat of a change to the constitution if the BJP came to

02:30power. That worked in the Lok Sabha election. But it's not an issue that resonated with voters at a

02:35local level in the assembly polls. The women vote is the other major takeaway from this election.

02:42Women voters went up by six percentage points in this assembly election in Maharashtra compared to

02:47last time. And the welfare schemes for women, particularly the stipend that poor women receive

02:54from the government, which was announced just a few months ago, that has been a huge game changer.

02:58And now if you look at state by state, women voters are increasingly becoming the X factor

03:04that all political parties are trying to woo. Nationally, the BJP has emerged stronger from

03:10these results, despite the setback in Jharkhand, and the opposition's morale will certainly be low.