Political scene warms up in Mumbai

Wednesdays political activities in the city were clear indicators of parties setting the stage for upcoming polls Speaking at the Labharthi Sammelan BJPrsquos national chief J P Nadda sang praises of the PM and his schemes and also took pot shots at the previous MVA government calling its collapse the ldquopeoplersquos wishrdquo Local body polls are expected this year while elections to the Maharashtra Assembly and the Lok Sabha are due early next yearBJP takes on MVANadda kickstarted his twoday tour of Maharashtra on Wednesday with an aim to connect with the party workers and various sections of the society Calling the previous MVA government corrupt Nadda justified its collapse last year following the defection of Shiv Sena MLAs who joined hands with the BJP as the ldquopeoplersquos wishrdquoAddressing the Labharthi Sammelan meeting of the beneficiaries of public welfare schemes in Ghatkopar he said the initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi including Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana Ayushman Bharat and PM SVANidhi helped the people struggling to survive during the COVID19 pandemic Nadda Fadnavis and other leaders also interacted with the beneficiariesAlso Read Maharashtra MVA chalks strategy for simultaneous polls in 2023Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis BJP national president J P Nadda and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar share a light moment at a party function in Mumbai on WednesdayLater the BJP president attended ldquointellectualrdquo meetings at Atal Smruti Udyan in Borivli and in Kandivli where he interacted with lsquopanna pramukhsrsquo whose task is to encourage people to vote ldquoThe BJP is a party that has a leader resolve policy workers and programme It is a panIndia and pancommunity party We do what we speak Wersquore privileged to be part and parcel of this party that has a consistent ideology for generationsrdquo he told the gatheringNadda was also slated to preside over the state BJPrsquos core committee meeting late evening to review the partyrsquos preparedness elections The BJP also staked claim to the Mumbai mayorrsquos post City BJP president Ashish Shelar said the party will install its mayor in the forthcoming election Shelarrsquos resolve was endorsed by Nadda underlining the BJPrsquos strategy to perform better than it did in the 2017 electionmdashwhen it lost to the united Shiv Sena by two seatsUddhavrsquos lsquoMission SCrsquoShiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with all his officebearers asking them to convince the public that the Supreme Courtrsquos recent verdict was in their favour Thackeray told the district chiefs and coordinators at the Shiv Sena Bhavan that the BJP was misleading the people on the SC verdict in the Sena faction fight He asked them to explain the fine print to the confused grassroots workers who form the backbone of the election machine At the meeting misunderstandings were clarified and the SCrsquos positive observations were explainedSome attendees said the meeting was called in view of Fadnavisrsquo statement that the local body polls could be held in OctoberNovember this year Thackeray asked his rank and file to prepare in that directionTo mark the partyrsquos foundation day Sena UBT will also hold two mega events at NSCI in Worli and Shanmukhanand Hall in Matunga on June 18 and 19 respectivelyOverhauling NCPConcurrently Nationalist Congress Party NCP boss Sharad Pawar met his partyrsquos senior leaders at Y B Chavan Centre Following his resignation and subsequent withdrawal the NCP is expected to restructure its organisation at all levels Those who have completed three years in the office will be replaced said the state party president Jayant PatilPawar advised the leaders to keep the MVA intact because he also felt strongly that the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections could be held concurrently Pawar also suggested a prepoll alliance for the local body elections even as the Congress an MVA ally has said it was planning to go solo in Mumbai and cities where it has good electoral prospects However the Congress high command hasnrsquot taken up the demand raised at the state levelFor Lok Sabha the NCP will focus more on the seats where it finished second in 2019 The senior leaders have been allotted a region to supervise the efforts In 2019 the party won four seats and bagged another in a bypoll The NCP will also celebrate its foundation day on June 10 at a grand ceremony in Ahmednagar It will be clubbed with the festivity of the coronation day of Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajThe individual meetings of Shiv Sena UBT and NCP came after the three MVA parties met on Sunday to decide the way forward for the forthcoming elections The buoyancy in the MVA camp has been palpable after the Congressrsquos grand victory in Karnataka They have agreed to begin seatsharing talks at the earliest