MUMBAI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Maharashtra on Tuesday for a two-day tour to address seat-sharing issues with alliance partners before the Assembly polls and boost the cadres’ morale. The senior BJP leader landed at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur, where he was greeted by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state party president Chandrashekar Bawankule, among others.
While interacting with the party leaders, Shah asked them to rebuild contact with the people and gain their confidence. He told them that if the village sarpanch was with the Opposition, they should get a candidate who contested the sarpanch elections and lost it. “Sincere efforts should be made to increase at least ten per cent votes in every booth. The party workers and leaders must unite by burying all differences. The workers, candidates and local leaders should shoulder the responsibility,” Shah said.
Along with focusing on the booth, they should also engage with Opposition workers and use their factionalism in the party’s favour by turning in as many votes as possible. “We will not tolerate factionalism in the party and state assembly constituencies. Each one has to work wholeheartedly to win our candidates,” he asserted.
He also suggested that the party workers and leaders use the festive season to meet as many people as possible. During this tour, Shah focus is on Vidarbha, Marathwada, and western Maharashtra, the regions where the party faced major debacles.
“BJP is paying extra attention to the Vidarbha region, considered to be the party’s bastion, but in Lok Sabha elections, it could bag only one seat -- that is, union minister Nitin Gadkari’s in Nagpur while it lost all remaining seats. In the 2014 state assembly elections, the BJP won 44 MLAs out of 62, while this tally went down to 29 in the 2019 state assembly polls. As per the general election result, state assembly seat-wise projection, BJP is unlikely to cross the double-digit number; this is a major cause of concern for the party and its top leadership,” said a source.
Poor results
BJP is paying extra attention to the Vidarbha region, considered to be the party’s bastion, but in Lok Sabha polls, it could bag only one seat — that is, minister Nitin Gadkari’s in Nagpur while it lost all remaining seats.