BJP national president Amit Shah arrived here on a private visit to the city on Saturday morning. Soon after his landing at the Indore airport, Shah drove straight to Chaitanya Dham Ashram, around 3 km from Mandleshwar, where he condoled the death of Gajanan Joshi, brother of senior RSS pracharak Bhaiyaji Joshi.
Gajanan Joshi had passed away 13 days back. During his visit, Shah was also accompanied by Bhaiyaji Joshi, his brothers Bhalchandra Joshi and Arvind Joshi, State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and BJP organising secretary Arvind Menon.
Shah, during his brief stay, also met Prerna Kolhatkar, who runs a musical institute, Sur Chaitanya Kala Kendra. On the occasion, a large number of Maheshwar Project employees also met him and submitted him a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister seeking reimbursement of their eight months salary and restarting of the Maheshwar Project, which is lying closed for almost two years for lack of fund.
From Mandleshwar, the BJP chief went to Ujjain at 4.30 pm where he performed `abhishek' of lord Mahakaleshwar. Throughout his visit to Indore, Mandleshwar and Ujjain, Shah maintained a distance from the media and refused to talk to them.
However, following persistent queries by the media in Ujjain who wanted to know whether his visit has anything to do with the coming Assembly elections in two States, Shah nodded to their questions.
From Ujjain, Shah came back to Indore and left for Delhi at 9 pm.
Earlier on his arrival at Indore airport at 11.30 am on Saturday, Shah was received by State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan. A large number of senior party leaders and office-bearers had thronged at the city airport to welcome Shah.