The National Democratic Alliance managed to repeat its 2014 election performance in Maharashtra winning 41 seats; the United Progressive Alliance, despite the alliance with the NCP did worse than 2014. This, in a state which has seen farmer mobilisations and caste based agitation (by Marathas and Dalits, but for different reasons) needs to be unpacked. In this episode, Sarthak Bagchi, Assistant Professor at Ahmedabad University joins us to talk about how the Bharatiya Janata Party- Shiv Sena alliance managed to hold on in the state through careful incorporation of disparate caste groups, the importance of entrenched networks and the role of turncoats, and the impact of the Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi and MIM alliance on Dalit-Bahujan politics, and what lies ahead in the Assembly elections for Maharashtra later this year.
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