Shah, Bhagwat meet amid Maratha protests
BJP says meet, which came on same day as CM’S allparty discussion, was preplanned; change of guard unlikely with RSS backing Fadnavis
MUMBAI/NAGPUR: Against the backdrop of the ongoing Maratha agitation, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party president Amit Shah met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat in Mumbai on Saturday. The closed door meet, held at the RSS headquarters in Mumbai, went on for over an hour and a half.
While a senior BJP leader said the meeting was pre-planned, it assumes importance given the Fadnavis-led government is on the back foot over the Maratha stir.
The meeting also took place on the day the CM called an all-party gathering of group leaders in the state legislature to discuss the issue.
While there is no official communication on the agenda of the meeting, a senior swayamsevak at the RSS headquarter in Nagpur said Bhagwat seems to have communicated to Shah that he was against any change of guard in the state owing to the protests. Amid speculations over the same, the RSS feels that Fadnavis is doing a very good job and should be allowed to lead the state and complete his five-year term, the RSS leader added.
Meanwhile, Union minister Nitin Gadkari also ruled out a change of guard in the state and said the entire party was standing firmly behind Fadnavis. “I firmly believe that all communities, including the Marathas, will get justice under the CM’S leadership,” he said.
A senior BJP leader said the Maratha agitation was not on the agenda of the Shah-bhagwat meet as it was pre-planned. “Amit bhai is scheduled to attend a special screening of a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai today [Saturday] evening and that’s one of the reasons for his visit. He did have a meeting with the RSS chief. However, since this was a closed door meeting, it is not known what was discussed,” he said.
He also said the meeting was not called following Maratha protests, but it is possible that the issue came up during the discussion, along with other topics such as 2019 poll-preparedness and a possibility of preponing the state elections from October to May. The state assembly goes to polls in October 2019, but there has been discussion in the BJP’S senior brass of holding the polls earlier along with the general polls.
Following the meeting with Bhagwat, Shah who was last seen in the city on July 22 to take stock of the party’s poll preparedness, was at the state’s Sahyadri guest house, in Malbar Hill. After this, he is learnt to have attended the screening of the film inspired by Modi’s childhood, ‘Chalo Jeete Hain’ (Let’s Live) at a cinema hall in Nariman Point. The film co-produced by T-series is expected to be premiered on a private TV channel on Sunday.