With the Supreme Court paving the way for Maharashtra to hold its much-delayed local body elections in the next few months, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Nanded on May 26 would be significant for the ruling BJP in the forthcoming poll battle.
Though the State Election Commission is yet to announce its schedule, the apex court ordered Maharashtra in early May to hold the local body polls within four months.
Twenty-nine municipal corporations will go to polls, as will local bodies down to the panchayat level. Already, the parties, both from the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), have swung into action for these polls.
After arriving in Nagpur late on Sunday, Shah will on Monday head to Nanded, where he is expected to hold closed-door meetings on the local body polls with senior leaders and then address a public rally to set the tone for it. “For the BJP, every election is important. Whether it is Lok Sabha or Assembly or municipal corporation. The state and central leadership together plan the strategies,” said a BJP functionary.
Nanded is the turf of turf of senior BJP leader and ex-Congress CM Ashok Chavan, a former two-time Lok Sabha MP from the seat.
Ahead of Shah’s visit, Chavan held a series of meetings with several prominent local leaders from the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) – an exercise that is being seen as a tactical move to induct them into the BJP fold to weaken the two key MVA parties and consolidate the BJP’s support base for the local body polls.
“We are in talks with former MLAs as well as some other leaders of Congress and NCP(SP) in Nanded. They would be inducted into the BJP during Shah’s visit,” said a close aide of Chavan.
On the BJP’s push to induct leaders from rival parties, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said: “If anybody from other parties is keen to come and work in the BJP, we welcome them.”
With Chavan on its side now, the BJP has gained a foothold in Nanded district, which has traditionally been a Congress stronghold.
