Mumbai:
The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) will use the expertise of party president Amit Shah while ensuing the Maharashtra Assembly polls due in October. The party aims to replicate the success it achieved in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls using the "formula" provided by Mr Shah in Maharashtra too, state unit president Devendra Fadnavis said today.
"However, it won't be the 'UP formula' but a distinct 'Maharashtra formula' and we have begun work on the same," Mr Fadnavis said.
Asked if he feared that the accusations against Mr Shah would backfire, Mr Fadnavis said, "the accusations against him are political. During the United Progressive Alliance or UPA government tenure, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it has no evidence against Shah."
"Our rivals are now afraid when they learnt that Shah will be coming here. They are apprehensive about their fate, knowing his organisational and management capabilities," Mr Fadnavis said in a Television interview.
To Shiv Sena leaders' claim that their party president Uddhav Thackeray will be the chief ministerial nominee after the polls, Mr Fadnavis said, "Uddhavji has said the decision on the issue would be taken in a meeting of Mahayuti."
Asked if the old seat sharing formula would remain this time also, Mr Fadnavis said, "the decision on this matter will also be taken in a meeting of Mahayuti leaders. No single party is going to decide that."
To a query, Mr Fadnavis said he was "neither declared nor undeclared candidate of the BJP for the chief ministerial post."
"In the past, we have never announced the Chief Minister post nominee before elections," he said.
The BJP leader said it will be "challenging" for the party to face Assembly polls in the absence of Gopinath Munde, who passed away in a road accident in Delhi this June.