What is pannas khokhe and will it swing Maharashtra polls

The phrase “pannas khokhe” might not ring a bell for people outside Maharashtra, but for anyone from the state, it is loaded, and brings back memories. Of course, how one reacts to it, would depend entirely on which side of the fence — the ruling Mahayuti alliance or the opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi — they’re on.
Probably coined and certainly popularised by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray, the phrase “pannas khokhe” became a sharp jab at the 40 MLAs who, led by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, defected from his party in 2022.
“Pannas” translates to 50, and “khokhe” means box, but in local slang, it’s a stand-in for “crore”. ‘Khokhe’, which means crore, and ‘peti’, which stands for lakh, are Bombay underworld lingo, now mainstreamed, thanks to Bollywood.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders hurled the ‘pannas khokhe’ taunt at the defecting lawmakers, accusing them of pocketing Rs 50 crore each to switch sides. It became a buzz-phrase ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
As Maharashtra gears up for the 2024 Vidhan Sabha election, among a number of factors that could influence the poll outcomes is “pannas khokhe”, according to former Maharashtra CM and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan.
“… The pannas khoke, the Rs 50 crore, that was given to each MLA to switch parties, that is going to be an issue in the constituencies of those MLAs,” Chavan said. “You watch the fun,” added Chavan, the last Maharashtra CM from the Congress.
Chavan made the remarks at the 2024 India Today Conclave Mumbai, a flagship event of the India Today Group.
Chavan’s assertion that “pannas khokhe” would play a role in the election to the 288-member Assembly, suggests that the issue of alleged corruption and defection from 2022 wasn’t dead and could resonate deeply with voters this time.
In the last couple of years, taunts of “Pannas khokhe” followed CM Eknath Shinde and his partymen.
As the phrase got popular, it was casually hurled at them, be it in the Assembly or during field visits. Much to its humiliation and discomfort, the Shinde-led Maharashtra government responded with a slew of probes and police actions.

The Maharashtra Police in 2023 even registered a case against a Marathi rapper for allegedly defaming the Eknath Shinde government through his video song ‘Pannas Khokhe, Ekdum OK’.
Rap singer Raj Mungase had the “pannas khoke” and the word “chor” (thieves) in his song in the song.
Five years after the 2019 election that brought the MVA, led by Uddhav Thackeray’s unified Shiv Sena, to power, the 2024 Vidhan Sabha polls will mark the first time the state chooses its government again since then.
The upcoming election is expected to be highly competitive, with the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit Pawar, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), facing strong opposition from the MVA coalition. The MVA includes the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray, the Congress, and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).
In the summer of 2022, several MLAs of the Shiv Sena joined hands with the BJP, toppled the MVA government and made their own government. Then NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar switched to their side in 2023.
This issue of betrayal of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar was a big issue in the Lok Sabha election, and would continue to be so in the upcoming Assembly polls.
The defections, as Chavhan pointed out to be a factor in swinging votes in the Assembly polls, had some kind of indication in the results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls too.
Out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, the MVA bagged 30 seats, while the Mahayuti count stood at 17. Among the Mahayuti, Shinde’s Sena could win only 7 out of 15 seats it fought, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP lost three seats, winning just Raigad.
Therefore, the local-anti-incumbency, and the fact that the elected representatives did not honour the votes they had sought, defections in 2022 left voters in many constituencies with a sour taste.
Calling the defections an assault on the mandate of the people of Maharashtra, the Congress and its partners have been playing it up, as an “illegal” switch.
“That [“pannas khoke”] is an addition to five key issues that would affect [the election],” said former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan. “Politics in Maharashtra has sunk to the level where MLA are being bought like vegetables in the market.”
“Is this what Maharashtra wants? No it doesn’t. You will find out when the elections come. In the Loksabha election, the pannas khoke was not that big an issue. But it is now,” said Chavan.
“That is because each MLA will be asked why they changed the party for what great ideological reason they did so. They will have to answer to the voters who had planted trust in them, and the MLAs sold that trust,” added Chavan.
This sentiment could translate into electoral losses for the defecting MLAs and, by extension, the Mahayuti alliance, is what Chavhan pointed out, when he brought up the “the pannas khoke” during his interaction with India Today journalists Rajdeep Sardesai and Preeti Choudhary.
As Maharashtra heads towards the 2024 Assembly elections, it is likely that the “pannas khokhe” will be turned into an issue and might swing votes. The issue played a role in the Lok Sabha election, but as MLAs, with the taint of pocketing ‘pannas khokhe’ go around to campaign for themselves, they might face closer scrutiny from voters.