MUMBAI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Siddhivinayak temple and a couple of Ganesh Mandals including that of the Lalbaugcha Raja in his day-long visit of Mumbai on Monday. The BJP leader, who also met several of the BJP leaders in the city, however, kept away from ally Shiv Sena.
Earlier on Sunday, Shah addressed a rally in Solapur to mark the conclusion of the second phase of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s Maha Janadesh Yatra on Sunday. He stated that the abrogation of Article 370 would be the key poll plank in Maharashtra. He then held closed-door meetings with the key BJP leaders in the state till past midnight.
He reached Mumbai in the morning and went straight to Siddhivinayak Temple at around 11.30 am. A devotee of lord Ganesha, Shah visited the Siddhivinayak Temple and the Lalbaugcha Raja pandal during Ganesh festival every year along with family members.
He also visited the Ganesh Mandal at Bandra, the constituency of former city BJP president and education minister Ashish Shelar. Shah waited briefly at the Sahyadri state guest house and had a few meetings with BJP leaders including CM Fadnavis. However, he kept away from the ally Shiv Sena. He also visited the chief minister’s official residence ‘Varsha’ in Malabar Hill area.
While Shah was expected to meet Shiv Sena leaders in wake of the yet inconclusive seat-sharing talks between the two saffron parties. However, he skipped it indicating that the decision regarding alliance has been left to the state leaders.
The leader who had meetings with Shah since Sunday included Fadnavis, state BJP President Chandrakant Patil, state BJP’s organizing secretary Vijay Puranik, national joint organizing secretary V Satish, state in-charge Bhupendrasingh Yadav and minister Vinod Tawde. Several others like ministers Girish Mahajan, Subhash Deshmukh, newly inducted leaders and BJP MLAs were kept away from these meetings.
In 2014, the BJP and Sena contested the state polls separately. The BJP at that time won 122 out of the total 288 seats, the highest so far by the party in the state. Also, several MLAs and leaders from the opposition Congress and NCP have joined either the BJP or the Sena in the recent weeks. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra.