If the fight between the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress is all about Maharashtra and not about where Sharad Pawar sits, then what in Maharashtra is worth fighting for? Land comes first, from all indications and then money (they are nearly the same thing, but not quite). There is not one infrastructure or development project which cannot have questions raised about it. Since 1995, it’s as if the state has been nothing more than a goodie bag for politicians of all dispensations to dip into at will.

Three former chief ministers, all from the Congress, are under scrutiny for corruption. That is surely unprecedented. The reason no one likes current Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is that he has tried to clean up the system and kept the builder lobby at bay. As a consequence, he’s slowed down on government procedures, which means nothing has happened in two years. That’s a lose-lose for Maharashtra: damned if you do and damned if you don’t.