Amit Shah arrives in Nagpur to review assembly poll readiness, Nitin Gadkari absent

Nagpur/Mumbai On Tuesday, when union home minister Amit Shah arrived in Nagpur to review the Bhartiya Janata Party’s preparations for the Maharashtra assembly polls slated this November, the party’s MP from Nagpur and one its most senior leaders Nitin Gadkari was conspicuous by his absence.

Last week too when Prime Minister Modi was at Wardha to mark one year of the Vishwakarma Yojna, Gadkari remained absent. He was in Pune instead where he spoke about the need for the person at the helm of affairs to tolerate the “strongest opinion against him and to introspect.”

While there is speculation that Gadkari is being given a short shrift by the party leadership, just last month the RSS had impressed upon the BJP to take Gadkari along for it to do well in the elections. The joint general secretary of the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh Atul Limaye who is the coordinator between the RSS and the state BJP had a meeting with Gadkari and with Devendra Fadnavis about the polls.

Amit Shah on Tuesday, sent a clear message to the cadre in Nagpur that the central leadership of the party will be at the helm of affairs in the Assembly polls. While reviewing poll preparations for the 62 assembly constituencies of Vidarbha, Shah warned state leaders to keep aside differences and to refrain from factionalism.

Gadkari was campaigning in J&K on Tuesday but party sources said he could have been prevailed upon to be present in Nagpur for this crucial meeting given that he played a major role in building the party’s base in Vidarbha.

For his part, Shah set the target of 45 out 62 seats in Vidarbha for the BJP. These, he said, were crucial for the party to come back to power.

BJP had won 44 seats in 2014 in the region which dropped to 29 seats in the 2019 election. Despite the drop it was the highest tally for the party among all the six regions of the state. Shah alluded to the factionalism that plagued the BJP in the Lok Sabha election four months ago and warned leaders with dire consequences if it persisted in the Assembly elections.

“He told the leaders to avert any sort of rebellion in the party and at the same time to woo candidates with elective merit into the fold. He said strict action would be taken against aspirants who rebelled on not getting party ticket,” said a senior leader who was present at the meeting.

Shah also addressed head on the problems that afflicted them in the Lok Sabha elections. ‘We faced defeat in the Lok Sabha election because party workers did not work proactively. Wrong choice of candidates led to infighting in constituencies. Loyal party workers felt left out because the people who joined the party in the last few years were getting more importance.’ There was an urgent need for corrective action, he added.

He also impressed upon the leaders to reach out to people to communicate how the BJP had helped the Maratha community and about the Ladki Bahin Yojna, said an office bearer of the party from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.

Later in the day Shah held close door meetings with the chiefs of two allied parties, chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar to discuss seat-sharing. He is also believed to have told Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar that the three parties must ensure that there is vote transfer across the three alliance parties. Shah will hold similar meetings of party officer bearers from Western and north Maharashtra on Wednesday in Kolhapur and Nashik.