Are Maharashtra’s political parties being fair to voters?

BJP has withdrawn its candidate for the forthcoming Andheri bypoll in Maharashtra. It will be the first significant poll in the state after the collapse of the MVA government on the heels of a split in the Shiv Sena.

The outcome of BJP’s decision is that Rutuja Latke, candidate of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, is all but guaranteed a win. The bypoll is on account of the demise of Ramesh Latke who won in the last election.

BJP’s decision to withdraw its candidate was preceded by public lobbying by other political parties to do so. The reason being that Maharashtra’s political tradition has been to allow the kin of deceased candidates to win unopposed. This comes with a caveat. Sharad Pawar, who was among the politicians to request BJP to withdraw its candidate, said that if a sitting MLA passes away with three or four years to go before the next election, a proper contest makes sense.

At one level, this is an unusual development in these times. The bypoll follows a bitter split in the Shiv Sena, which helped BJP form the government again. Given this backdrop, sticking to tradition is encouraging. The fact that the outcome of the bypoll makes no difference to the stability of the government is likely to have played a part in what transpired.

On the other hand, are the main political parties in Maharashtra being fair to the voters? Why should they assume that voters may want to automatically transfer their allegiance to the kin of a deceased legislator?

Read also: BJP withdraws candidate from Andheri East bypoll

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