Amit Shah to perform Ganeshotsav 'maha-aarti'

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah will perform a 'maha-aarti' of Lord Ganesha as part of the ongoing 11-day Ganeshotsav during his visit to Mumbai Thursday, party sources said.

The 'maha-aarti' shall be performed at a Gilder Tank ground in south Mumbai's Grant Road area with the accompaniment of priests from five prominent temples in the city.

They are Swami Narain temple, ISKCON, Babulnath, Phadke Ganpati Temple and Mahalaxmi, and the high attraction of the venue is a huge replica of the famous 'Char Dham' created by Bollywood's top notch art director Nitin Desai.

Shah will also visit an exhibition on the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi organised by party legislator M.P. Lodha at the same venue where pictures, life-size cut-outs and statues have been displayed for the public.

Prior to this, he will address a meeting of party workers in the evening at Shanmukhananda Hall as part of the preparations for the ensuing Maharashtra assembly elections.

A huge welcome has been planned for the Mumbai-born Shah when he arrives at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here at 10 a.m. Thursday on his first visit to the city after taking over as the BJP chief.

A party official, requesting anonymity, said as per Shah's known agenda, no meeting has been fixed with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Since the past few days, there has been intense speculation of a probable meeting between Shah-Thackeray ostensibly to hammer out differences over seat-sharing for the upcoming assembly elections.