A rousing reception awaits new BJP president Amit Shah when he arrives at the Mumbai airport on Thursday morning, on his visit to the city after taking the reins of his party.
After a formal reception by his party leaders and workers at the city airport, Shah will drive down to leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative Council Vinod Tawde's Vile Parle residence in north-west Mumbai where he will confabulate with the State party unit's core committee members.
During his hour-long meeting with the State party unit's core committee members, Shah will discuss the party's preparations and strategy for the forthcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls. Apart Tawde, leader of Opposition in Maharashtra legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse, State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis and senior leader Sudhir Mungantiwar will be present at the meeting.
Shah will have lunch at party MP Poonam Mahajan's 12th floor flat at Bhima building at Worli in south-central; Mumbai. Though the new BJP national president will be taking stock of the party's readiness for the State Assembly polls, a meeting with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray is not Shah's agenda during the day-long visit to Mumbai.
Shah's decision not to meet Uddhav during his first visit to city after becoming the party's national president has surprised many in the State political circles, given that the BJP and Sena have been alliance partners for nearly two and a decades and that it is normal for a new BJP president or a senior party leader to call on the Sena chief during their visit to the city.
No wonder that an apparently annoyed section of the Shiv Sena activists is circulating a message on WhatsApp - that carries two photographs depicting senior BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh seeking the blessings of late Sena chief Bal Thackeray. The lines accompanying the photographs read thus: "Shahana Ho, Ha photo atuato kaIJ Ha Sahabancha Maharashtra Ahe… Ab Maharashtra Sab Maharashtra" (Better wise up, do you remember these photographs, this is Saheb's Maharashtra.. Now Maharashtra, Next Maharashtra).
Those looking at the poster WhatApp message will not miss the intended pun on the Marathi word "Shahana" that the Sainiks have used to greet Shah. It is essentially to remind the new BJP president as how essential it is for him to meet Uddhav during his first visit to Mumbai. Shah will later in the evening address a party workers' meeting at Shanmukhananda Hall at Matunga in north-central Mumbai.
In the evening, Shah will perform a "Maha-Aarti" at Gilder Tank ground in south Mumbai's Grant Road area. Priests from five prominent temples --Swami Narain temple, ISKCON, Babulnath, Phadke Ganpati temples and Mahalaxmi - will perform puja in his presence.
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.
After the twin engagements at the Gilder Tank ground, he will head to lalbaug to have darshan of "lalbaugcha Raja (King of lalbaug), installed inside the replica of the famous ancient Jejuri temple, inside Ganesh Galli. Subsquently, he will have darshan of another Ganesh idol installed by Saravajanik Ganesh Mandal at Bandra, with which the Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shellar is associated. As if to steal thunder from Shah's Mumbai visit, Uddhav will be addressing a news conference at 12 noon on Thursday the Sena headquarters "Sena Bhavan" at Dadar in north-central Mumbai, where he will release the Sena's vision document for the Assembly polls - "Ek Paul Pudhe" (One step forward). The Sena sent out the news conference invite to journalists through a WhatsAPP message late on Wednesday night.