Hotel RangSharda has seen several political stories

The Hotel RangSharda in Bandra, the 'Queen of Suburbs' of Mumbai, has once again become a focal point of Maharashtra politics.

In the last over two decades, this three-star hotel off the Bandra Reclamation had witnessed several episodes of Maharastra politics, particularly involving the BJP and Shiv Sena.

It was back in news again when Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray shifted the MLAs of his party to the hotel amid fears of poaching.

The hotel hall, which has a capacity of nearly 800-seat, had been a venue of several important meetings including those addressed by late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani stayed in the hotel when BJP held its silver jubilee convention in December, 2005, months after the BJP-led NDA was voted out of power. The convention was held at the Bandra Reclamation and to mark the occasion a rally was held in Shivaji Park, where the statesman-politician Vajpayee announced his retirement from active politics.

The first convention of BJP was held in the Bandra Reclamation in 1980 but the hotel was not there. The hotel came up in 1982.

"The hotel has seen several historical meets and events. The history of BJP-Shiv Sena is not complete without it," says veteran political analyst Prakash Akolkar, who has closely followed the Sena-BJP relations in last three decades.

"Several meetings of Sena had been held here that had been addressed by Balasaheb," says veteran journalist Yogesh Trivedi.

The hotel has also seen one-on-one meetings between Thackeray Sr and late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, the architects of saffron alliance.