The country’s two top political leaders were in Maharashtra on Saturday. It was kind of a face-off between two national parties, the BJP and Congress, ahead of the state Assembly elections that are weeks away. Speaking from different places, they set an agenda for their respective alliances. Apart from bashing Congress, PM Narendra Modi pushed development and welfare schemes as poll planks. Labharthis have the BJP’s focus. In places like Mumbai, the party has showcased its infrastructure and public transport achievements. Many more projects worth thousands of crores have been launched at the hands of the PM, who said that the Opposition, when it was in power, delayed projects like Metro-3.

Elsewhere, Lok Sabha opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, slammed the BJP and RSS. He promised to remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations. He linked quota expansion with the empowerment of the deprived classes and protection of the Constitution—a narrative that helped the INDIA front to cut the BJP’s Lok Sabha strength. Congress won most of the Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, leading to a belief that it could be the single largest party in the Assembly. Gandhi’s speech points seemed to be a Lok Sabha-like line of campaign. If one adds to its local and state issues, the script could be complete. There will be improvisation as and when the situation demands. The Constitution-related campaign originated when a BJP leader said why his party needed 400-plus MPs.