Will Savarkar steer Maharashtra polls?

NEW DELHI: Till the Veer Savarkar issue surfaced, the conventional wisdom in both Congress-NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena circles was that the assembly elections in Maharashtra would be a close fight. With the Election Commission announcing on Tuesday that the elections in the state — the first major electoral test for both UPA and NDA after the general elections — would be held on October 13, the countdown for the two major political alliances has begun.
BJP, as usual, took an early lead in launching its election campaign long before its political rivals with party general secretary Pramod Mahajan and state chief Gopinath Munde launching the parivartan yatra across the state, stressing it would focus on the Congress-NCP government''s "misgovernance", farmers'' suicides, malnutrition deaths among adivasi children and power shortages.
Shiv Sena initially looked as though it would concentrate on farmers'' issues, with Sena boss Bal Thackeray promising free power if his party was voted to power. The promise led to CM Sushilkumar Shinde trying to upstage Thackeray by promising to waive electricity dues and interest on loans for farmers, even as NCP chief Sharad Pawar has promised to give a third of the seats to women candidates.
But with the Savarkar issue now hotting up, both Sena and BJP have decided to use the issue to whip up local sentiments against Congress-NCP combine. BJP-Sena combine feels that since Savarkar is a household name in Maharashtra with schoolchildren in Marathi-medium schools studying him, an "insult" to him could become emotive.
However, in Congress circles, there are two views. One section is concerned at being seen to be party to an "insult" to a man who is an icon in the state; the other section feels it is likely to affect only the Brahmin vote. After Mahatma Gandhi''s assassination by Godse, there were widespread attacks on members of the community.