The NDA in Maharashtra may not have it as easy as it did in 2014 and 2019, when it won 41 of 48 Lok Sabha seats, because of a sympathy wave in favour of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, a senior leader of the alliance, Chhagan Bhujbal has said. 

In an exclusive interview with NDTV on Saturday, Mr Bhujbal also opened up on his decision to withdraw from contesting the Nashik Lok Sabha seat and shared his thoughts on whether the NDA’s slogan for winning 400 seats – ‘ab ki baar 400 paar‘ – has made voters believe that the Constitution will be amended.

Maharashtra’s already interesting politics became more complex in 2022 when Eknath Shinde and a group of MLAs staged a rebellion, which led to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsing. Mr Shinde went on to align with the BJP and take oath as the chief minister, splitting the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena into two.

A year later, a similar script played out in the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, when his nephew Ajit Pawar split the party and also joined hands with the BJP, becoming a deputy chief minister in the process. The Maharashtra political landscape, thus, now has two Shiv Senas and two NCPs – under very similar but different names – pitted against each other. 

When Mr Bhujbal, who was at the forefront of the rebellion in the NCP with Ajit Pawar, was asked about the impact of this in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, he said in Hindi, “I believe there is a sympathy wave – the way Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena split and a faction of the NCP switched sides. This is showing in their rallies. It doesn’t seem like they are failing the way they did in 2014 and 2019.” 

In both of those Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had fought in an alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena and the parties had won in 23 and 18 constituencies respectively.

“The people’s faith is, however, still in Narendra Modi and they want him to form a strong government,” he added.

The Maharashtra minister turned slightly emotional when he was asked about the contest in Sharad Pawar’s bastion of Baramati between his daughter Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra. 

“Even for me, it is saddening, that people who have lived together in the same house for so many years… What is happening is something that many people are not liking. Whose fault it is, that is a different matter. But it would have been very good if this had not happened,” he said. 

Slogan Hurting NDA?

On the opposition’s charge, also made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, that the NDA is seeking 400 seats because it wants to amend the Constitution and whether the “ab ki baar 400 paar” slogan has hurt the NDA alliance, Mr Bhujbal said, “The opposition’s campaign on this has been a strong one. People think the slogan is about changing the Constitution. And a BJP MP in Karnataka (Anantkumar Hegde) had also said this.”

“PM Modi has, however, said several times that the Constitution is strong and it can’t be changed even by BR Ambedkar himself. But this message is being given to the people. The impact will be seen only when the ballot boxes are opened,” he added.

Withdrawal From Contest

Nashik has been one of the most contentious constituencies as the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP try to work out a seat-sharing arrangement and Mr Bhujbal pulled out of the race for the ticket on Friday. The candidate is yet to be announced and a tussle between the allies seems to be underway, with conflicting remarks being made by BJP leader Pankaja Munde and chief minister Shinde.  

Mr Bhujbal said he had not asked for the ticket but was told by other leaders in the NCP during Holi that he would contest from Nashik. This, he said, was conveyed to him after a late-night meeting between the allies in Delhi where seats were being discussed one by one instead of in blocks for each party. 

The minister said Mr Shinde also wanted the seat for the Shiv Sena and that he agreed to contest because Nashik is his base and he and his son have been MLAs from there. His nephew, Sameer Bhujbal, was also an MP from the seat. 

Stating that he got a lot of support from the people because of the development work he had done, Mr Bhujbal said he was surprised because his name was not declared from the seat for three weeks.

“When Narayan Rane’s name was also declared (for Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) and mine wasn’t, I figured they don’t want to do it. That’s when I said I don’t want to fight from the seat. If I have to contest, I want to do so with respect. I know my status. I don’t like asking for tickets. The only time I asked for a ticket was from (Shiv Sena founder) Bal Thackeray for the municipal corporation in Mumbai in 1970,” he recalled.

“After that I have been involved even in ticket distribution. So I thought waiting for so long is not right for me. So I felt bad, and decided not to contest,” he said.

Police detained nearly 200 people at three US universities on Saturday as they cleared pro-Palestinian encampments, in the latest campus clashes triggered by protests over Israel’s war against Hamas.

On the East Coast, police in Boston detained about 100 people while clearing a protest camp at Northeastern University, with social media posts showing security forces in riot gear and officers loading tents onto the back of a truck.

The action was taken after some protesters resorted to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,'” Northeastern University said in a statement on social media platform X.

On the opposite side of the country, Arizona State University police arrested 69 people for trespassing after the group set up an “unauthorized encampment” on campus.

Arizona State officials said a protest group — “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff” — had set up a camp Friday and then ignored repeated orders to disperse.

And in the US heartland, police at Indiana University arrested 23 people as they cleared a campus protest camp, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported.

Police with shields, batons and other riot gear broke through a line of protesters who had linked arms, tackling those who did not move, the paper said.

Balancing act

The campus activists are calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, as well as for colleges to sever ties with the country and with companies they say profit from the conflict.

The protests have posed a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate speech.

Police have carried out large-scale arrests at universities in recent days, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse demonstrators.

In a statement on X, Northeastern said the area on campus where the protests were held was now “fully secured” and “all campus operations have returned to normal.”

The school said it made the move after “what began as a student demonstration two days ago was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern.”

It added that detained individuals who produced a valid school ID have been released and will face disciplinary proceedings, not legal action.

“Those who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested,” the school said.

‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’

Dozens of students remained encamped Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania, despite the college president ordering disbandment after what he said were “credible reports of harassing and intimidating conduct.”

Meanwhile, Columbia University in New York, where the protests originated, was relatively calm. Officials there announced Friday that they would not be calling police back to campus after more than 100 people were arrested last week.

“To bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community,” school leaders said in a statement, referring to the New York Police Department.

The decision was made even as Columbia signaled it had barred from campus Khymani James, a leader of the campus protests who had said in a video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

“Chants, signs, taunts and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to ‘kill’ Jewish people are totally unacceptable, and Columbia students who are involved in such incidents will be held accountable,” the school said.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt announced it was closing campus until the end of the semester, with instruction and work continuing remotely after protesters repeatedly attempted to “break into multiple locked buildings with the intention of either locking themselves in, vandalizing or stealing equipment.”

Canada saw its first campus protest camp spring up Saturday at McGill University. The school in Montreal said such encampments, which are not permitted, increase “the potential for escalation and confrontation, as we have seen at some colleges throughout the US.”

Hamas operatives staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Palestinian operatives also took roughly 250 people hostage. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,388 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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