HM Amit Shah in Pune today, set to boost morale of BJP cadres

PUNE: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is attending a day-long state convention on Sunday in Pune to give a much-needed booster dose to the BJP cadres and send a strong signal to be ready for certain compromises and sacrifices for the MahaYuti’s victory.

Home Minister Shah is expected to advise the leaders and workers to further step up coordination and dialogue with the allies Shiv Sena and NCP despite BJP’s leadership position in the MahaYuti. Shah, who has conveyed to the state BJP leadership that the party will not go solo in the Assembly election, will exhort the cadres to follow the alliance dharma and along with Shiv Sena and NCP fight with full strength and force.

The party’s timing for the state convention in the presence of Amit Shah is important as Prime Minister Narendra Modi a week ago during the launch of Rs 29,000 crore worth of infrastructure project in Mumbai had not only showered praise on the MahaYuti government but declared his desire to make Maharashtra state capital the global financial powerhouse and leading tourist destination and also a Fintech capital. He dropped sufficient hints that it would be possible with the double engine sarkar (NDA at the Centre and MahaYuti government in Maharashtra).

Sunday’s convention is not only to charge up the cadres but to discuss the strategy for the election to the state Assembly and local and civic body election, especially after the dismal performance of BJP in particular and the MahaYuti in general in the general elections.

The MahaYuti partners are currently engaged in the blame game for the debacle citing the absence of coordination and lack of transfer of votes. The target is the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and its inclusion in the MahaYuti without taking the cadres into confidence -- a decision made at the Central and state levels. RSS mouthpieces 'Vivek' and 'Organiser' had also criticised the move on Ajit Pawar and argued that the BJP failed to counter the opposition’s scathing criticism of inducting NCP, which has been facing corruption charges, merely for political gains while compromising the party’s zero tolerance for scams.

Party insiders say HM Shah will therefore insist the party cadres strengthen outreach at 91,600 booths to seek votes not only for the BJP but also for NCP and Shiv Sena.

Furthermore, even though the state BJP leadership has reiterated that the party, which had won 106 seats in the 2019 Assembly election, will continue to play a big brother’s role, the rising dominance and asserting role of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is making the party leaders and cadres uneasy.

CM Shinde has been calling shots in the wake of Shiv Sena winning seven Lok Sabha seats of the 15 seats it fought. He has reportedly made the Dy CM and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar re-write the additional budget for 2024-25 presented during the monsoon session for having his mark in various proposals providing a slew of sops and incentives to girls, women, youth, farmers and downtrodden. CM Shinde made a strong argument that the announcement of a slew of welfare schemes with an outgo of a whopping Rs 96,000 crore was all the more necessary to win over sections which did not vote for MahaYuti due to "fake narratives" spread by the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Lok Sabha polls.

CM Shinde took the credit as the posters and banners were exhibited the next day with a tagline 'Madaticha Hath Eknath (Eknath Shinde a leader with a helping hand)'. After CM Shinde took all the credit for welfare schemes, including Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, it was decided to take these schemes jointly across Maharashtra projecting them as MahaYuti’s agenda considering them as a much-needed winning formula for the Assembly election.

During the meeting held three days ago, Shiv Sena leaders made a strong case for party staking claim over 100 seats and decided to appoint observers and in-charge of 126 Assembly seats. The announcement came ahead of the BJP’s two-day core committee meeting held on July 18 and 19 in which few members complained about the party's poor performance due to local level cooperation from Shiv Sena and NCP. They also pressed for the BJP to contest 150 seats to project that it is in the pole position. On the other hand, NCP leaders are making statements that the party should get 90 seats as promised at the time of joining MahaYuti.

Home Minister Shah is expected to ask the state leaders to follow the 'collective leadership' principle in the implementation of its Assembly election roadmap and also in keeping the allies together.

Against this backdrop, HM Shah’s address at the Sunday convention is important and is expected to give a call to pull up the socks with a rider that MahaYuti’s victory is the need of the hour.