Maharashtra: BJP, UBT Embark On Poll Management

A fierce fight seems to be on the cards between the BJP and the estranged ally Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray for the upcoming assembly elections.

While BJP has decided to make an appeal to the state voters not to vote for Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Sena, on the other hand, will organise Bhagwa Saptah (saffron week) - a mass contact programme to reach out to voters.

The saffron week will be organised between August 4-11. Sena leadership has asked its Vidhan Sabha sampark pramukhs to make it a point to be present for at least two days in each fortnight.

In a meeting, Thackeray gave them a programme for the next four months. Presuming that the election code of conduct will come into force in the next 41 days, the party leaders should start working on the strategy.

The programme given to the sampark pramukhs says that they must conduct tours of the respective assembly segments along with the deputy district chief and tehsil chief. A meeting should be held in each panchayat segment of the constituency where local office bearers, shakha pramukhs and chiefs of the student and women fronts will be called. A list of the local office bearers containing names and contact details will be made along with the data of the newly registered Shiv Sainiks, new voters and the villages where no shakha exists.

On the other hand, the BJP will go to voters with an appeal that electing the MVA would not be in the interest of the state. If voted to power, the MVA will stop the Ladki Bahin Yojana, the free distribution of three LPG cylinders and other welfare schemes by the Modi government, claimed state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

Bawankule has asked MVA to clarify if they would extend the OBC quota to the Maratha community.

It was during the MVA rule that the Maratha reservation was struck down by the Supreme Court. The MVA's only agenda is to stop all welfare measures of the Modi and Mahayuti governments, he charged.