What is pannas khokhe? Will it impact the 2023 Maharashtra Assembly polls?

India Today's ground report from Beirut

The term “pannas khokhe” may not resonate with people outside Maharashtra, but for anyone from the state, it is full of meaning and evokes memories. Of course, how people react to this all depends on which side they are on – the ruling Mahayutthir alliance or the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

The term “pannas khokhe” was probably coined and popularized by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray, and it became a sharp attack on the 40 MLAs who will be elected in 2022 from Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.

“Pannas” means “fifty” and “khokhe” means “box”, but in local slang it is an alternative word for “crore”. “Khokhe” (meaning “crore”) and “peti” (meaning “lah”) are Mumbai underworld lingo that are now mainstream thanks to Bollywood.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader taunted the defecting MPs with “pannas khokhe”, accusing them of pocketing Rs 50 crore each to switch sides. This has become a buzzword ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Former Maharashtra chief minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said ‘pannas khokhe’ is one of the many factors that could affect the poll results as Maharashtra gears up for 2024 assembly elections one.

“…the Rs 50-crore pannas khoke given to each MLA to change parties, it will become an issue in the constituencies of these MLAs,” Chavan said. “You see the excitement,” said Congress party’s last Mahar Rashtra Chief Minister Chavan added.

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Chavan was speaking at the India Today Conclave 2024 in Mumbaiis the flagship event of the India Today Group.

Chavan’s claim that “pannas khokhe” will play a role in elections to the 288-member assembly suggests that the problems of alleged corruption and defections from 2022 have not gone away and may resonate deeply with voters this time around.

CM Eknath Shinde and his party workers have been taunted as “Pannas khokhe” for the past few years.

As the phrase gained popularity, it was casually thrown at people, whether in parliament or during field trips. The Shinde-led Maharashtra government was humiliated and upset and responded with a series of investigations and police actions.

In 2023, the Maharashtra police even registered a case against a Marathi rapper for allegedly defaming the Eknath Shinde government through the video song “Pannas Khokhe, Ekdum OK”.

Rapper Raj Mungase once The word “pannas khoke” and “chor” (thief) in his song in song.

How ‘Pannas Khokhe’ affects Maharashtra elections

Five years after Uddhav Thackeray’s unified Shiv Sena-led MVA came to power in the 2019 elections, the 2024 Assembly elections will mark the first time since then that the state has again Elect the government.

The upcoming elections are expected to be fiercely contested, with the ruling Mahayutthir alliance formed by the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar-led It is composed of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was strongly opposed by the MVA Alliance. The MVA includes the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray, the Congress Party and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).

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It was learned in the summer of 2022 that several Shiv Sena MLAs joined forces with the BJP to overthrow the MVA government and form their own government. Later, the NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar switched to their side in 2023.

The issue of betrayal of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar was a big issue in the Lok Sabha elections and will continue to be so in the upcoming Assembly elections as well.

As Chavhan pointed out, defections are a factor in vote swings in the assembly polls and the results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls also showed some signs of it.

Of the 48 seats in the Lok Sabha, the MVA bagged 30 seats while the Mahayutthi Party bagged 17 seats. Among the Mahayutthi parties, Shinde’s Sena won only 7 of the 15 seats it contested, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP lost 3 seats and won only Raigad .

As a result, defections in 2022 have left voters in many constituencies with a sour taste due to local anti-incumbency forces, and the fact that elected representatives did not deliver on the votes they sought.

The Congress party and its partners have termed these defections an attack on the mandate of the people of Maharashtra and have been rendering them as “illegal” conversions.

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“That [“pannas khoke”] is complementary to the five key questions of impact [the election]”, said former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan. “Politics in Maharashtra has degenerated to the extent that MLAs are bought like vegetables in the market. ”

“Is this what Maharashtra wants? No, it is not. You will know when the elections come. In the Lok Sabha elections, pannas khoke was not a big issue. But now it is,” Chavan said .

Chavan added: “This is because every MLA will be asked why they want to change parties, for what great ideological reasons. They have to respond to the voters who have placed their trust in them, and the MLAs But that trust was betrayed.”

Referring to “pannas khoke” in an interaction with India Today’s journalists Rajdeep Sardesai and Preeti Choudhary, Chavhan noted that this sentiment could translate into electoral defeats for defecting MLAs and, in turn, the election of Mahayut’s alliance. fail.

With the 2024 Assembly elections coming up in Maharashtra, ‘pannas khokhe’ is likely to become an issue and could impact the votes. The issue played a major role in the Lok Sabha elections, but as MLAs with the taint of “pannas khokhe” campaigning for themselves, they are likely to face greater scrutiny from voters.

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