Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari will be holding the highest number of rallies for the BJP and its alliance partners in the ‘Mahayuti’. Union minister Gadkari, who will hold 40 election rallies, will be extensively campaigning for the state election after a long time.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will hold more than 50 election rallies. In comparison, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold only eight rallies, as per the party’s initial campaign plan. Union home minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also be holding 20 and 15 election rallies respectively.
An insider in the BJP said that the party has been working on a plan to hold around 173 public rallies and meetings of the senior party leaders including the Prime Minister, Mr. Shah and Nitin Gadkari. “All the public rallies will commence after November 5. The Prime Minister will hold his first rally in Gondia district of the Vidarbha region tentatively on November 7 or 8. The PM will also hold a mega rally in Pune on November 12. He will hold a total of eight meetings including two meetings each in Vidarbha, Western Maharashtra, Marathwada (central part of the state, where the BJP had been completely wiped out in Lok Sabha election), Konkan region of the state. The Konkan rallies will be held in Mumbai and another one in Sindhudurg or Ratnagiri of Konkan region,” the insider said.
The party has also planned three public rallies in a day of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. A senior BJP leader who has been familiar with the development said that it is an initial plan. “The senior party leaders are yet to give their consent as per their availability. However, the central leadership has been directly in contact with senior party leaders including Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Mr. Gadkari,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state BJP leaders held a meeting in Mumbai over the rebel candidates. The party has around 20 such candidates including senior BJP leader and two term Lok Sabha member Gopal Shetty in the state assembly election. The party has decided to pacify the rebels through the senior leaders including Fadnavis, Chandrakant Dada Patil.
BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde will meet the disgruntled Shetty on Thursday to pacify him. The party is trying to convince the rebels to withdraw their nominations before the deadline of November 4.
The ruling BJP is contesting the Assembly election in an alliance with Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar led NCP against Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is an alliance of Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT). After the drubbing in the Lok Sabha election 2024, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the victory of the BJP led Mahayuti candidates on maximum seats of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20. The votes for the state will be counted on November 23.