The roots of the defeat of the Congress in the 1995 assembly elections in Maharashtra go back to the communal riots which took place in January 1993 and the bomb blasts that followed in March. These two events added to the political reach of the BJP and Shiv Sena as well as alienated the Muslims from the Congress. Additionally, the campaign of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance successfully exploited the notoriety of the corrupt Pawar government.
