Shah to speak at event organised by Mumbai BJP on Sunday

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Nashik in North Maharashtra on Thursday, all eyes are now set on Union Home Minister Amit Shah's public event on Sunday in Mumbai where he is expected to touch upon the issue of the BJP's pre-poll pact with the Shiv Sena.

Shah, who is also BJP president, will speak at NESCO complex in suburban Goregaon (East) at an event organised by the Mumbai unit of the saffron party.

BJP and Shiv Sena leaders have been speaking in different voices over the number of assembly seats the two party should contest in Maharashtra in the upcoming polls.

The state heads of the BJP and the Shiv Sena have been stating that they are keen on contesting the assembly polls jointly. However, some other prominent leaders of both parties have been giving different opinion.

In the 288-member Assembly, the Sena is pressing for a 135-seat each formula with the BJP, leaving the remaining 18 for the smaller allies. However, the BJP is reportedly not willing to give more than 120 seats to the Sena.

Shah is expected to speak about the BJP-Sena pre-poll alliance besides other key issues like the Centre's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and bifurcate it in two Union Territories.

The BJP, under Shahs leadership, had broken its 25- year-long alliance with the Shiv Sena in 2014 and emerged as the single largest party with 122 MLAs in the state.

Subsequently, the BJP had established its dominance over most of the urban and rural civic bodies and increased its strength in the Maharashtra Legislative Council as well.

In the last five years, the Shiv Sena, which joined the BJP government in the state in late 2014, has routinely criticised the Devendra Fadnavis administration and also the Modi government, over various issues.

However, before the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah managed to keep the Sena on the BJP's side and the saffron alliance won 41 of the 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra.

Modi addressed the concluding rally of the 'Mahajanadesh Yatra', undertaken by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ahead of polls, at Nashik, around 200km from here.