Mahapol 2009 Review

As the year comes to an end it is time to check how the movers and shakers of Maharashtra Politics have fared in the ‘Dance of Democracy’!

Click on the image to see the ranking in detail

Analysis:

1. Come Hell or High water, Sharad Pawar proves that he still is the uncrowned king of Maharashtra. Though his nephew Ajitdada appeared lost in the wilderness sometime during the year, he made a remarkable comeback at #5!


2. Chavan and Deshmukh prove to be cat o’ nine lives… and maintain a remarkably stable performance even as 2 cyclonic elections rocked their boats.


3. But the real star of the show is Raj Thackeray. He proved beyond doubt that he is the heir to the Thackeray legacy. Most thought that he will not be able to make a mark as long as Thackeray Sr is alive. But now he has usurped his uncle’s seat on the Mahapol ladder. Cousin Uddhav’s fortunes are inversely proportional to Raj’s career graph as can be seen above.


4. The two Sena rebels – Bhujbal and Rane have not fared so well this year


5. Gadkari came from a distant #2 in Maharashtra BJP to overtake Munde… watch out for more action in this arena!

Non-breaking news!

Sulochana, the leading Marathi actress of yesteryears will be soon awarded the highest civilian award in the state – Maharashtra Bhushan. She has acted in over 250 Marathi and Hindi movies over the last 6 decades. Her role as Jijabai in ‘Maratha Tituka Melavava’ was so convincing that it became a benchmark for all the other ‘Jijabais’ in the years to come!

Almost all the Marathi newspapers carried this news on the front page today… but the English dailies (except DNA) gave it a total miss. That just reinforces 3M’s theory (1, 2, 3) that English Newspapers in Mumbai believe ‘Marathi News’ is not good enough to be associated with! Surprisingly, Times of India’s editions in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad are more than happy to carry news about ‘native culture’ of their respective states… OK let’s accept that Mumbai is the ‘only truly cosmopolitan city in India’… but even their Pune edition gives this news a miss… Amen!

Marathi Bola

Just got this File on email… looks like a hypothetical conversation between Raj Thackeray and a customer response executive @ Tata Indicom...

...Depending upon which side of the 'divide' you are... this conversation will sound either 'repulsive', 'inspiring', 'non-sense', 'hilarious' or 'stupid'!

MAHAPOL POWERLIST Dec 09 Edition

click on the image to see larger version

The complete list of 25 most powerful politicians is as follows -

1. Sharad Pawar (68) NCP 0
2. Raj Thackeray (41) MNS 0
3. Balasaheb Thackeray (82) SS 0
4. Ashok Chavan (50) INC 0
5. Ajitdada Pawar (49) NCP 0
6. Gopinath Munde (59) BJP 0
7. Nitin Gadkari (60) BJP 0
8. Vilasrao Deshmukh (63) INC 0
9. Chhagan Bhujbal (60) NCP 0
10. Uddhav Thackeray (48) SS 0
11. R R Patil (52) NCP 0
12. Narayan Rane (56) INC 0
13. Murli Deora (71) INC 0
14. Gurudas Kamat (51) INC 0
15. Prakash Ambedkar (51) RPI 0
16. Sushilkumar Shinde (66) INC 0
17. Praful Patel (53) NCP 0
18. Ramdas Athavale (55) RPI 0
19. Vinay Kore (37) JSP 0
20. Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil (76) INC 0
21. Vinod Tawde (45) BJP 0
22. Manohar Joshi (71) SS 0
23. Vijaysingh Mohite Patil (64) NCP 0
24. Supriya Sule (39) NCP 0
25. Devisinh Shekhawat (75) Cong 0

Party Code

BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party

INC – Indian National Congress

IND – Independent

JSS – Jana Surajya Shakti

MNS – Maharashtra Navanirman Sena

NCP – Nationalist Congress Party

PWP – Peasants & Workers Party (Shetkari Kamgar Paksha)

RPI – Republican Party of India (any faction)

SS – Shiv Sena

Movement on the MahaPol ladder –
0 : Zero indicates that there has been no change in the ranking over the previous month.
+X : Plus indicates improvement in ranking over last month and ‘x’ indicates how many ranks he/ she has moved upwards.
-X : Minus indicates degradation in ranking over last month and ‘x’ indicates how many ranks he/ she has moved downwards.

To understand the methodology used for the ranking click here.

The figure in bracket indicates the age of the politician.

Analysis

• Since the inception of Mahapol Powerlist, it is for the first time that there has been no change in the ranking over the previous month. Thanks to a very lackluster month!

MahaPol can be directly contacted on mahapol25@gmail.com