In a move aimed at challenging the supremacy of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the BJP has planned Jagar Yatra, a massive outreach programme in Mumbai aimed to connect to the masses.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will lead the Jagar Yatra.
“We will show who is standing in the way of the development of Mumbai, It is necessary to expose those who are spreading illusions and lies. And hence this awakening yatra will be conducted across Mumbai in the month of November,” Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar, an MLA from Vandre West Assembly constituency of the city.
According to him, BJP teams will go around the entire Mumbai and strike direct conversations with the people.
The local bodies polls in Mumbai - which has the richest civic body in the country - is due since March this year.
The BMC has been controlled by Shiv Sena for over a quarter of a century.
However, the 56-year-old saffron party divided into two factions - Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde - the permutations and combinations have changed.
If one looks at the results of the 2017 elections, of the 227 seats, the Shiv Sena had won 84 seats, however, the BJP has 82, just two less. The BJP intends to bridge the gap.
In September, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the strategist of the BJP was in Mumbai for Ganesh-darshan, he held meetings with the top leadership of the BJP, during which the brief was very clear - that the party has to win the BMC polls and have its next Mayor.