lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 24, 2019 01:39 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena are all set to launch their Lok Sabha election campaign with a joint rally on Sunday in Kolhapur. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will address the rally, which, party leaders say will be attended by at least one lakh people from western Maharashtra. Raosaheb Danve, BJP state president, said the venue located in Maharashtra’s sugar belt, is significant.

“As told often by our party president Amit Shah and CM Devendra Fadnavis, we are working to uproot the NCP from western Maharashtra. Hence, we have decided to start our campaign from Kolhapur,” he said.

The Kolhapur Lok Sabha seat is presently held by Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Dhananjay Mahadik, whose cousin Amal Mahadik is a member of legislative assembly (MLA) from the BJP.

Danve said that the party is confident of delivering a major jolt to the Congress-NCP whose alliance seems to be half-baked. “They are struggling to form an alliance while we have already begun our campaigning,” he said. In the 2014 polls, the BJP-Sena made deep inroads into the sugar belt by securing seven out of 12 Lok Sabha seats in western Maharashtra, besides gaining an alliance partner.

Sena leader Neelam Gorhe said that the late Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray had often launched many of his political campaigns from Kolhapur after seeking blessings from Goddess Mahalaxmi. The BJP-Sena alliance was following that tradition.

Kolhapur DYSP Prerna Katte said that the police had made preparations to handle a turnout of 70,000 to a lakh at the rally. Preparations were in full swing throughout the day on Saturday for the rally.