Regional imbalances in Maharashtra have been discussed and debated endlessly in almost every kind of forum. The demand for Vidarbha as a separate state, which is an old one and the more recent demand for Mumbai as a separate state, are both reflections of the persistence of regional imbalances. Way back in 1984 the fact-finding committee under Dandekar gave us ‘backwardness’ indicators which sought to capture the regional discrepancies that prevailed in the state. The glaring skewness is only too apparent from the fact that in 2006-07, the share of Mumbai alone in the gross state domestic product (GSDP) was seen to been around 23 per cent; Mumbai, Nashik and Pune division together contributed almost 60 per cent to the GSDP while Amravati division’s contribution was a mere 6 per cent.

The regional variation in the political clout wielded by the different regions is well known. Each of these administrative regions, apart from their distinct features, also have a predominant caste composition, which has an important bearing on electoral outcomes. With Assembly elections being closer home, these factors play a more significant role here than in the national elections. Consequently the recent delimitation — which has re-drawn political boundaries and created some turbulence in the traditional strongholds — is bound to have an important bearing on the forthcoming Assembly elections’ outcome. Post delimitation, the seats available to Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra (Congress-NCP strongholds) have reduced — both Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra have 4 seats less each (Vidarbha now has 62 and Western Maharashtra now has 58) while that of Konkan (BJP-SS strongholds) has risen from 65 to 75 as have the seats for Mumbai Suburban (an increase of 9 seats to 26), a stronghold of the Sena-BJP. This scenario seems to suggest that on paper, the Sena-BJP may have an edge over the Congress-NCP combine. However, if the Lok Sabha election results are to serve as a pointer, then the silver lining for the Congress is the MNS factor! A natural question which then arises is: should the balance of power tilt once again in favour of the Sena-BJP coalition in the forthcoming Assembly elections, how would this affect economic policies and investments in the state? One can venture to answer this question by computing annual growth rates of GSDP for the years of the Sena-BJP and the INC-NCP coalitions (see table).

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