Mumbai: Ahead of assembly polls in Maharashtra, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday held a brief meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Ajit Pawar at the airport in Mumbai where he also visited a couple of Ganesh pandals.
There was no official word on what transpired at the meeting, but according to sources, Shah assured the two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies that there would be a "respectful" distribution of assembly seats among the Mahayuti partners for the state elections which are likely to be held in November.
Shinde heads the Shiv Sena, while Ajit Pawar is president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and both are allies of the BJP in the ruling Mahayuti coalition.
Shah, a former BJP president and a key poll strategist of the party, was on a two-day visit to Mumbai, where he attended a function on Sunday evening to release the documentary produced by a media organisation. He then met core committee members of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the state government's Sahyadri Guest House in south Mumbai.
Before leaving Mumbai, Shah met Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar, NCP working president Praful Patel, its state president Sunil Tatkare, and other key leaders on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Shah visited the famous Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh pandal in Mumbai. Chief Minister Shinde, Fadnavis and BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde accompanied Shah during his visit to Mumbai's most popular Ganesh pandal in the Lalbaug area.
The Union minister also visited the residence of Fadnavis, a senior BJP leader, and performed puja at the Ganesh idol installed there. He later offered prayers at the idol of the deity installed at 'Varsha' bungalow, the official residence of Shinde.
Shah also offered prayers at the Bandra West Ganesh pandal, which is associated with Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar.
Earlier, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar separately visited the Lalbaugcha Raja pandal with his son-in-law Sadanand Sule and granddaughter Revati.
The 83-year-old Rajya Sabha MP said he sought strength from the Hindu deity to fight for the interests of farmers and common citizens.
In a post on X, the former Union minister said, "The glory of Mumbai's Ganesh festival can be seen in Girgaon. I visited the Lalbaughcha Raja pandal along with my family members and prayed for strength to fight for the causes of farmers and common people."
BJP MLC Pravin Darekar, however, took a jibe at Sharad Pawar, saying his visit to the Lalbaughcha Raja pandal was politically motivated.
"Pawar visited the temple after so many years and that, too, for political reasons. It is highly pretentious of him to visit the pandal. In the past, Pawar had attended events where speakers insulted Hindu deities, but he never countered them," Darekar claimed.
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