Mumbai, Sep 9, 2024
NCP national president and Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday met Home Minister Amit Shah here at the airport before he left for Delhi during which he discussed the MahaYuti’s electoral strategy for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were also present during the meeting.
Amit Shah is believed to have asked them to further strengthen the coordination among the MahaYuti partners that will pave the way for the transfer of votes among each other.
Besides, the Home Minister advised the MahaYuti partners to reach out to the voters on the development plank while flagging off a slew of welfare and development schemes during the assembly poll campaign. He also asked them to strongly counter the opposition’s fake narratives.
Although Shinde and Fadnavis were present at the airport on Sunday during Amit Shah’s arrival, Ajit Pawar was conspicuous by his absence, which led to a buzz in the state political circles. Despite media reports about his absence, Pawar remained silent.
However, his party legislator Amol Mitkari said: “Yesterday, Ajit Pawar was in Baramati due to his prior engagements. Today, he arrived in Mumbai and met Home Minister Amit Shah at the airport. Why should Ajit Pawar go to Sagar bungalow (the official residence of Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis)? If there is a MahaYuti meeting, he will go there,” he added.
Ajit Pawar’s meeting with Amit Shah came a day after the latter held a marathon meeting on late Sunday night with top BJP leaders and discussed the party’s poll strategy and also the MahaYuti’s plan to face the upcoming Assembly elections together with full strength.
State BJP leaders are quite adamant over getting at least 160 seats while leaving the balance of 128 to Shiv Sena, NCP and other smaller parties for the 288-member Assembly election likely to take place in the second week of November.
However, the Eknath Shinde-led faction, in the wake of its strike rate in the Lok Sabha election after winning 7 of the 15 seats it fought, is insisting that the party should not settle for less than 100 seats.
On its part, NCP leaders are making a case for getting 90 seats as promised at the time of its move to join the MahaYuti in July 2023.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah had a busy day on Monday as he went for Ganesh ‘darshan’ at Eknath Shinde’s official residence ‘Varsha’.
Thereafter, he visited Devendra Fadnavis’ official residence, Sagar, and also had a darshan of Ganapati.
Amit Shah, along with his wife, also visited the famous Lalbaugcha Raja to seek blessings, and later he visited Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav at Bandra.
The Home Minister eventually left for Delhi.(Agency)
