Ensure at least 10% increase in voting at each booth: Amit Shah

Nagpur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asked BJP workers and leaders to ensure that the voting percentage at each polling booth increases by at least 10 per cent during the ensuing Maharashtra assembly elections.

Addressing a party meeting in Nagpur, Shah also asked them to work in tandem with the ruling Mahayuti alliance partners, a leader present at the meeting said.

Shah said the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which addresses the management, preservation, and misuse of Waqf properties, will be passed in Parliament soon.

Shah interacted with key office-bearers of all the 62 state assembly constituencies of Vidarbha region at Suresh Bhatt hall in Reshimbagh area of Nagpur.

Speaking of the resolve to make the country strong, prosperous and safe, Shah listed many achievements of the Narendra Modi-led government, like scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, constructing the grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and revoking triple talaq.

Former Rajya Sabha member Anil Bonde said Shah emphasized the crucial role of Vidarbha region in the BJP’s success in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.

“Amit Shah showed us the path to victory. He said that the path passes through the Vidarbha region. He has given a clear direction for the party workers ahead of the assembly polls,” Bonde told a Marathi news channel.

Of the 288 state assembly seats, 62 are in Vidarbha region.

A BJP functionary said, “After the setback in the state in the Lok Sabha polls, Shah has asked the party workers to make extra efforts and reach out to the voters with various government schemes.”

“Shah asked the party functionaries to show similar enthusiasm for the candidates of allies and give a strong message that we all are united. He also said that if someone does not get a ticket in the 2024 assembly polls, it is not the end of his political career,” he said.

The BJP won only two of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the Vidarbha region this year. In the 2019 assembly elections, the BJP won 29 of the 44 seats it contested. The party won 44 assembly seats in Vidarbha in 2014 elections.

While state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were present at the meeting, senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari could not attend it as he was away, party sources said.

BJP workers and office-bearers gathered at the Nagpur airport to give Shah a grand welcome.

Shah’s two-day visit to Maharashtra also includes meeting BJP workers at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik, and Kolhapur. During these interactions, Shah is also expected to discuss seat-sharing formula for the assembly polls among the Mahayuti allies.