Union Home Minister Amit Shah has taken charge of the BJP’s Maharashtra campaign, with the kickoff from Nagpur on Tuesday, followed by more meetings Wednesday, indicating that the central leadership will drive the push. Sources said that, as part of the talks, Shah tried to allay BJP leaders’ apprehensions regarding the Maratha quota agitation, giving the example of the Patidar stir in Gujarat, and telling them to let the Centre worry about it. Incidentally, Union minister Nitin Gadkari was not present at the closed-door meeting held Tuesday in Nagpur, his home turf. The official reason was that Gadkari was campaigning in Jammu and Kashmir. The development followed demand from some quarters that Gadkari play a more prominent role in Maharashtra, where the BJP is facing a tough fight and where the veteran leader’s friendly ties across the political board could come in handy. Gadkari himself has made it clear that he doesn’t want to get involved barring campaigning if there is confusion or resentment about his role. A close aide pointed out, "Since 2014, when he moved to Centre politics, he has consciously kept away from state matters." The meeting presided over by Shah also seemed to clear some of the fog around the role in the elections of the most acceptable BJP face in the state and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. A pamphlet was shared at the meeting emphasising the significance of “collective leadership”, something that RSS sah sarkaryawah Atul Limaye, appointed by the Sangh as the coordinator for the Maharashtra elections, has been advocating too. The BJP needs to tread carefully on the CM face issue, minding the sentiments of its allies. A collective leadership strategy means Fadnavis may also escape being made the scapegoat if the BJP does badly. The cotton belt of Vidarbha under which Nagpur falls, and which comprises as many as 62 Assembly seats, has been a traditional bastion of the BJP. In 2014, the BJP had won 44 of the 62 seats. In 2019, when its Vidarbha tally declined to 29, the BJP was left short of a majority in Maharashtra, forcing the series of political upheavals that the state has seen since. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition successfully rallied Dalit, Muslim and Kunbi votes to break the BJP hold on Vidarbha, winning seven of the 10 parliamentary seats in the region. On Tuesday, Shah set a target of 45-plus Assembly seats for Vidarbha, asserting that the party which wins the region wins Maharashtra. Shah also addressed workers in Marathwada, North and Western Maharashtra as part of his two-day trip ending Wednesday. The fifth region Konkan (including Mumbai) is said to be on his schedule for next month. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had tried to keep the emphasis on Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout Maharashtra, overriding regional concerns – a mistake in hindsight, which the MVA cashed in on. Now, the message from the leadership is to identify local issues and make course corrections. The RSS headquarters has also told its karyakartas to reach out to the masses in large numbers, “and spread the message on the government’s policies and programmes, like the Ladki Bahin Yojna and electricity waiver to farmers". In the Lok Sabha polls, the RSS was believed to have adopted a more hands-off approach. In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 29 of the 62 seats in Vidarbha, 16 of the 46 in Marathwada, 13 of the 35 in North Maharashtra, 20 of the 70 in Western Maharashtra, 11 of the 39 in Konkan (including Thane), and 16 of the 36 in Mumbai. Its 2024 Lok Sabha poll decline was across the regions, with the BJP winning a total of nine seats (against 23 it won in the 2014 and 2019 general elections). These included two seats each in Vidarbha (out of 10), North Maharashtra (out of six), Western Maharashtra (out of 11) and Konkan (out of six). Besides, it won one seat in Mumbai (out of six). The Maratha quota quagmire was addressed by Shah at an interaction with BJP workers in Sambhajinagar . He told them: "We faced a similar agitation by the Patels for reservation in Gujarat. So, leave the Maratha reservation issue to us. The party should focus on getting maximum voters out of houses to booths (on voting day)." The Union minister held a separate meeting with CM Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar of the NCP, where the allies were assured that they would get fair representation. The formula, which Shah had also suggested at a previous meeting, gives the BJP 155 to 160 seats, the Shinde Sena 80 to 85 and the Ajit Pawar NCP 55 to 60 seats. State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said it was natural for Shah to get involved. "The BJP always works as a team. And the guidance of our Central leaders rejuvenates the cadre." Leader of the Opposition Vijay Waddetiwar, however, dismissed Shah’s 45-plus target as “wishful thinking”. “The Congress will emerge stronger and will be the leading party in the region. The party already did this in the Lok Sabha polls.”
