BJP president Amit Shah (Right) with Maharashtra election in-charge Om Mathur at the party's headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday. (Press Trust of India)
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which recently split from its 25-year-old ally Shiv Sena, is planning to hold 300 rallies in two days across Maharashtra for the upcoming assembly election in the state.
"Other parties launch campaigns by getting leaders to gather at one place. Our leaders are going to the people," a party spokesperson told NDTV.
The BJP says its campaign, 'Mulukh Maidan', will cover all the 288 assembly constituencies in the state and nearly all the central leaders will address rallies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will address rallies in south Maharashtra, Union Human Resources Development minister Smriti Irani will cover Pune. Cricketer-turned-BJP politician Navjot Sidhu will address rallies in Mumbai and Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar will focus on Nasik.
Apart from this, Delhi BJP leader Vijendra Gupta, Union Ministers Uma Bharati and Kailash Mishra will also address rallies on these two days.
The BJP faces a major challenge in these elections as for the first time in 15 years the party is fighting the polls without Shiv Sena as its ally. The BJP is banking on the 'Modi wave' to emerge as the single largest party in these elections and attempt to form the government in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, kicking off the Shiv Sena's campaign on Saturday in Mumbai, party chief Uddhav Thackeray attacked the BJP for demanding more seats. "You (BJP) broke the alliance. You have severed the bond of Hindutva. People will not forgive you," he said.
Uddhav also told the BJP, "We supported you but you kicked us. I have nothing against Modi but let's see who gets the blessing of Chhatrapati. Shiv Sena will show you how elections are won. Shiv Sena will show you whom Maharashtra belongs to."
Maharashtra will see a five cornered contest in these elections between Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, BJP and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as both the alliances of Congress-NCP and Sena-BJP were broken earlier this week.