Amit Shah to visit Mumbai during Ganesh festival, make BJP battle ready for BMC polls

The BMC elections are extremely significant for the BJP as the party has decided to leave no stone unturned to dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena from the BMC, which has kept its hold over the civic body for the last three decades.

(Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Mumbai next week and party leaders have said it will serve two purposes. Amit Shah, they said, will take part in the Ganesh festival and also interact with state BJP leaders to firm up the party’s strategy for the crucial BMC elections.

A senior BJP functionary said, “Shah is an ardent devotee of Lalbaugcha Raja. Every year without fail he comes to Mumbai during the Ganesh festival. He offers prayers accompanied by his family members at the Lalbaughcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal at Lower Parel in Mumbai.”

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Apart from attending the Ganesh festival, Shah plans to hold meetings with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar during his day-long visit. Shah will also meet Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

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The BJP has prepared an elaborate roadmap setting the target of over 134 BMC wards out of the 227. The BMC elections are extremely significant for the BJP as the party has decided to leave no stone unturned to dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena from the BMC, which has kept its hold over the civic body for the last three decades.

During the recently concluded monsoon session of the state Assembly, the BJP-Shinde government took the decision to restore the BMC wards to 227 from 236. It brought legislation to this effect to reverse the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s decision to increase the number of wards. The BJP believed the ward delimitation undertaken by MVA was detrimental to the party as the addition of nine wards was done with the motive to alter those where it had an edge.

Insiders indicate that the BJP and the Eknath Shinde faction are also set to strike a pre-poll alliance for the BMC elections. The Shinde faction has been tasked to wean away as many corporators from the Thackeray Sena group as possible to its fold to weaken its grip over the BMC.

The BMC is perceived as the lifeline of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as it derives its political identity and strength from the civic body. The country’s richest civic body with an annual budget of Rs 40,000 crore also stands apart as it has complex challenges to tackle. Being the financial capital of the country, Mumbai’s problems and expectations are very different from other civic bodies across the country.

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Sources indicated that the BMC elections are likely to be delayed further. The BMC polls took place in February 2017 and were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. After the Covid-19 cases came down, the flip-flop over the delimitation of wards and the monsoons became the reasons for the delay in holding the BMC elections.

However, sources in the BJP indicated that the possibility of the BMC polls being held in January-February 2023 cannot be ruled out.

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