Maharashtra’s ‘communal election’: Will it have a long-term social impact?

Three decades ago, Mumbai (then Bombay) witnessed India’s worst communal riots. For almost a month in 1992, flames of hatred engulfed the country’s financial capital—an unprecedented event that has not been repeated since. Even in those dark times, the city’s politicians of all hues kept certain institutions above the fray. The Siddhivinayak temple, home to Lord Ganesha, remained one such sacred line they wouldn’t cross.

Over the years, the Hindu god has become synonymous with Mumbai’s identity. But this election did not spare even the deity from being dragged into the dirty world of petty communal propaganda. As soon as campaigning for the Maharashtra Assembly election ended at 6 pm on November 18, hundreds of messages with communal content flooded all social media platforms. One such post by @MrSinha_, an account on the social media platform X, mentioned the Waqf board laying claim to the Siddhivinayak temple. This account is considered close to the BJP and often propagates material aligned to the right wing.

Opposition leaders criticised this sudden push of communal propaganda. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray called it “a desperate and shameless attempt of BJP” as “the party is seeing the defeat in the elections”. His party also made a complaint to the Election Commission. Later, @MrSinha_ deleted that tweet but the damage had already been done.

The 2024 Assembly election has been perhaps the worst ever when it comes to communal propaganda in the State’s history. The propaganda started building up immediately after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya made several posts on X on the lines of “Vote Jehad”. According to him, the Muslim community voted tactically in Maharashtra’s parliamentary seats to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (also known as Mahayuti). He wrote that the BJP faced defeat in the Dhule Lok Sabha constituency because out of its six Assembly segments, one (Malegaon Central) voted with a bumper margin in favour of the Congress even as the rest gave a lead to the BJP candidate, helping the Congress surge ahead. Malegaon Central is a Muslim-dominated constituency.

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Somaiya was later joined by other BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the party’s face in Maharashtra. In one of his rallies, Fadnavis even said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—the Opposition alliance comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Sharad Pawar, the Congress, and other small parties—won 18 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra due to ”vote jehad”. Meanwhile, the Election Commission, which had been seen as a “lame duck” amidst this communal campaign, woke up one day to say that the term “vote jehad” would not be tolerated.

‘Batenge toh Katenge’ to ‘Ek Hai toh Safe Hai’

By then, another phrase had already taken root in the public discourse: “Batenge toh Katenge” (if we are divided then we will be slaughtered). A slogan first given by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, this was adopted by most party leaders in Maharashtra. When he was in Maharashtra for the election campaign, Adityanath repeated this slogan. Although this aimed to consolidate the Hindu voters and polarise the election on communal lines, it was also bold, provocative rhetoric.

Also, there are 47 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra where the ruling Mahayuti (BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP) cannot afford to antagonise the Muslim community. Of these, 12 constituencies are dominated by the BJP whereas 8 are by the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and 27 by the NCP (Ajit Pawar). So, as “Batenge toh Katenge” started gaining traction, reactions from Muslim community leaders started coming in from these constituencies. As a result, Ajit Pawar was the first leader to say that there was “no need to bring this narrative from North India to Maharashtra”. In an interview with Frontline, he reiterated his stance, saying that Maharashtra is a progressive state and such things do not work there.

Not just Ajit Pawar, but even the BJP MLC Pankaja Munde said the same thing in her interview with Frontline. As a leader from Beed district with pockets of influence in the Marathwada and West Vidarbha regions, she is aware that Muslims are a decisive factor in many places. After Pawar and Munde, former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP, spoke out against the slogan. His daughter, Srijaya, is making her political debut from the family’s traditional Bhokar Assembly constituency in Nanded, which has some 60,000 Muslim voters. Chavan’s silence would have affected his daughter’s chances.

The BJP’s national leadership was sensing this discontent among their own party and alliance leaders. So, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a new slogan in “Ek Hai toh Safe Hai” (we are safe if we stay united), a soft version of “Batenge toh Katenge”.  Although it avoids harsh language, its undertone is just as communal. Defending this is easier for the Mahayuti, as was evident in what Ajit Pawar had to say: “It is like Hum Sab Ek Hai or Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas. There is no communal thing in [it].” The BJP then literally bombarded this slogan from all possible mediums, be it full-page advertisements in newspapers, radio, television, and social media. Although the wording might seem unifying, the slant of the campaign does not change the effect on people’s minds.

Shades of Islamophobia

Besides this, the BJP also raised the issue of the “demands” made by Islamic scholar and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) spokesperson Sajjad Nomani. BJP leader Pravin Darekar said that MVA leaders had accepted Nomani’s letter stating 17 demands, which included banning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Later, it turned out that there was no such mention in the actual letter by the AIMPLB.

Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar also posted a video on X where Nomani was seen talking about Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray as “soldiers of jehad”. But it emerged later that the clip was doctored and Nomani was actually replying to the BJP’s “vote jehad” campaign, saying that Thackeray or Pawar’s battle is for their own interest and that they cannot be the soldiers for the Islamic cause.

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After the campaign ended, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane posted a newspaper clip on X wherein Uddhav Thackeray was quoted for apologising to Muslims for the Shiv Sena’s participation in the 1992 riots, which was shared by many across social media platforms. Even some journalists also shared it but had to delete it after Aaditya Thackeray strongly objected to it. However, Rane is yet to do so.

Another fake claim involving Waqf land said that the Waqf board has demanded 80 per cent of the Pune municipality’s land as their property and that many such properties across the State, which are a matter of pride for one or other Hindu caste or community, were being targeted in such a manner. Only the election results would tell how much of this propaganda finds acceptance among Maharashtra’s voters. But this vicious campaign has deeply disturbed Maharashtra’s social fabric, once again.

Vinod Shirsath, editor of the Marathi weekly magazine Sadhana, put the situation in perspective. “Election comes and goes every five years. Society will always be there. To win just one election, if political forces started tearing down the fabric of peace and harmony then it might eventually lead to communal chaos. There is no return from that point. Earlier there was at least this sense in political leadership, but now even the last pole of political sense has uprooted in this election,” he said.