Bharatiya Janata Party campaign for the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election explained

AffiliationBharatiya Janata Party
Key peopleAmit Shah(BJP National President)Devendra Fadnavis(BJP Maharashtra President)Nitin Gadkari(Union Minister)Vinod Tawde(BJP Leader)Rajiv Pratap Rudy(BJP Maharashtra Observer)
SlogansShiv Chhatrapatincha Ashirwaad, Chala deu Modi na Saath
The Bharatiya Janata Party contested the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election independently on 260 seats after it broke up its 25 year old alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Background

The election was held on 15 October 2014 with all the parties contesting independently without alliance, The BJP and the Shivsena broke up after BJP disagreed upon Shivsena's proposal of 151 seats for Shivsena and 119 for BJP and 18 seats for Others. The Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party also ended their 15 year old alliance after the Indian National Congress disagreed over the NCP's proposal of 50-50 CM formula and more contesting seats to the NCP.

The Campaign

The Bharatiya Janata Party started its campaign from Mahalakshmi Racecourse, Mumbai where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally and targeted the incumbent INC-NCP state government on various issues like Unemployment, Energy Crisis, Farmers Suicide and Security etc.

The BJP addressed over 715 rallies across the state with 27 special appearances made by star campaigner Narendra Modi, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari addressed over 104 rallies in various parts of Maharashtra.[1]

Every BJP Chief Minister was placed to campaign in Maharashtra, Furthermore BJP poll strategists divided Maharashtra into 50 clusters, each comprising over 5-10 seats led by BJP leaders with proven skills. by this the BJP aimed to reach almost all corners of Maharashtra.

The BJP threw a blitzkrieg campaign, where leaders from National to local campaigned 24x7 to ensure Majority BJP Government in the state, Poll Vans with GPS were deployed across the state where Narendra Modi's and BJP's message for Development was reached to all the citizens of Maharashtra.[2]

Social Alliance

After ending the Alliance with the Shiv Sena, the BJP had the support of four small parties(RPI (Athawale), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Shiv Sangram, Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana) which were in the Maha Yuti

through these four parties the BJP aimed to get the support of various groups such as Dalits, OBC, Farmers etc across the state.[3]

Results

The BJP became the largest party in the election by winning 122 seats out of 260 it contested, the Shiv Sena won 63 seats coming second, the Indian National Congress won 42 seats and the Nationalist Congress Party won 41 seats[4]

RegionTotal seats
Bharatiya Janata Party
Seats Won
Western Maharashtra7024 15
Vidarbha6244 23
Marathwada4615 09
Thane+Konkan3910 06
Mumbai3615 10
North Maharashtra3514 13
Total[5] 288122 76

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How the BJP Planned its Campaign for Maharashtra . 2022-10-16 . NDTV.com.
  2. Web site: Halarnkar . Samar . 2014-10-19 . 5 Factors That Decided Haryana, Maharashtra Elections . 2022-10-16 . www.indiaspend.com . en.
  3. News: Jog . Sanjay . 2014-09-26 . BJP, Shiv Sena break alliance of 25 years . Business Standard India . 2022-10-16.
  4. News: 2014 saw return of BJP-Sena regime in Maharashtra after 15 years . The Economic Times . 2022-10-16.
  5. News: Nandgaonkar . Satish . Hardikar . Jaideep . Goswami . Samyabrata Ray . 20 October 2014 . Spoils of five-point duel . . dead . 26 September 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141201042347/https://www.telegraphindia.com/1141020/jsp/nation/story_18944791.jsp . 2014-12-01.