Amit Shah will be in Mumbai for two days and is likely to visit Fadnavis’ residence at Sagar in Malabar Hills. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey/File)When Union Home Minister Amit Shah visits Mumbai on September 5, BJP insiders expect him to convey an important message about Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s leadership of the party’s Maharashtra unit and reassure the Centre’s support for the coalition government ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
“Shah will be in the city on a two-day visit. A visit to Fadnavis’s residence at Sagar in Malabar Hills has been confirmed,” said a party leader. The Union minister is also likely to call upon Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at his Malabar Hills residence, though high on his agenda is Ganesh darshan at Lalbaugcha Raja in Parel.
“Shah wants to clearly convey that the Centre is standing behind the Shinde-Fadnavis government like a rock and that each political development in Maharashtra has the central government’s full support,” said the party leader, stressing the importance of projecting a united front led by Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the BJP in the run-up to the BMC elections.
A senior BJP leader said that by visiting Fadnavis, Shah wants to send a message that the deputy chief minister’s leadership in Maharashtra is uncompromised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah will bank on Fadnavis to deliver the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls for the party in the state, the leader added.
After a split in the Shiv Sena in June led to the downfall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, Sena rebels formed the government with the BJP. Eknath Shinde was sworn in as chief minister and Fadnavis had to settle for the deputy chief minister post. This, according to BJP sources, spawned disquiet in the party rank and file. “Fadnavis’s number two position in the government came as a rude shock,” said a party insider.
The insiders said the Shah visit is expected to put to rest speculations such Fadnavis was made a sacrificial lamb as part of a BJP strategy to reward smaller allies in view of the 2024 polls.
Shah will hold meetings with the state BJP’s core committee members. He will also meet Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the newly appointed state chief of the party, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar and the party’s new ministers.
Alliance with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will also be discussed. “With the Shinde faction on our side, the BJP has the Sena with it. If there is an overt or covert alliance with the MNS, we will have (Raj) Thackeray also on our side,” a senior BJP minister said.
Although the MNS is not a major electoral force, the BJP hopes to use Raj Thackeray’s oratorial skills to corner Uddhav Thackeray. And the Shinde faction is also keen to use the Thackeray-versus-Thackeray plot to divide the Marathi vote bank and end the Udhhav-led party’s 30-year rule in the BMC.