Amit Shah to hold meetings with tehsil, district-level BJP workers ahead of assembly polls

Mumbai: After internal surveys projected a poor performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, union home minister Amit Shah will interact with the party’s district- and tehsil-level leaders and workers in four regions of the state on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is also expected to meet with leaders from the BJP’s two allies in Maharashtra—the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party—to discuss the Mahayuti coalition’s seat-sharing pact.
On Tuesday, Shah will meet with BJP workers from Vidarbha and Marathwada in Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, respectively. On Wednesday, he will hold meetings in Nashik and Kolhapur with office bearers from northern and western Maharashtra, respectively. At least 700 incumbent and former office bearers and elected representatives are expected to attend the meetings to discuss various issues.
BJP leaders in Maharashtra see Shah’s meetings as an attempt to charge up the party cadre ahead of the state elections and send a message that it values them. “The party leadership is wary of a potentially poor performance in the assembly polls, especially after the demoralising Lok Sabha election results,” said a BJP leader who requested anonymity. The BJP won only nine seats in Maharashtra, down from 23 in the 2019 general elections.
“The leadership believes that the hardcore party workers did not work wholeheartedly during the Lok Sabha elections as they were unhappy with the alliance with [NCP’s] Ajit Pawar and the importance given to people who had come from other parties. This was the reason why the party’s much-touted booth-level mechanism did not materialise. The meetings by Amit Shah are an attempt to cheer up the ground-level party workers to ensure that they work religiously for the party candidates in the Assembly elections,” the BJP leader said.
Shah will also meet with chief minister Eknath Shinde, his two deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and the BJP’s state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule late on Tuesday to discuss seat sharing.
“The seat-sharing formula has been almost finalised, with a consensus on over 150 of the 288 seats. Most of the sitting seats will be retained by three parties, while elective merit will be the major formula in other constituencies. Shah is expected to be apprised about the potential alliance with smaller parties and fronts,” said another BJP leader.
Ahead of Shah’s arrival, the Maharashtra BJP’s core committee met at party office in Mumbai and reportedly discussed the disputed seats. “The state unit wants the disputes over seats and the formula for sharing the seats among the ruling allies to be finalised at the earliest. The delay in announcing the candidates and the distribution of the seats had cost the ruling alliance dear in the Lok Sabha polls. The meeting with Shah is expected to be important for the seat-sharing talks between the three parties,” the leader said.