Doval, Shah, Chavan.. a week ahead of jigsaw moves

Mumbai: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s surprise visit to Mumbai on Saturday has set the tone for a week ahead of hectic politics

Mumbai: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s surprise visit to Mumbai on Saturday has set the tone for a week ahead of hectic politics. By all accounts, Doval who arrived in the city ahead of union home minister Amit Shah’s two-day trip to the city, was in town ‘on a routine visit.’ The NSA, sources said, was on his way back to Delhi from Kochi when he decided to stop in Mumbai where he stayed overnight at the Raj Bhavan. Through Saturday he met his host, Governor Koshyari, the director general of police Rajneesh Seth and other senior IPS officers, and he also met CM Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde meets with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, in Mumbai on Saturday. (ANI)

Amit Shah is expected to be in the city late evening on Sunday, making this a political visit. Shah is expected to meet top party functionaries in the city and to review the party’s ‘Mission Mumbai’ plan to wrest control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from the Shiv Sena which has run it for three decades. As it did during the Hyderabad municipal polls two years ago, the BJP is expected to go all out in the campaign to win control of India’s richest civic body. The belief in the party is that if the Shiv Sena loses BMC polls, their hold on Mumbai will be weakened, said a city BJP leader. “Among other things, also on the agenda is whether to take Raj Thackeray and MNS on board and to finalise a possible tie-up with the Shinde faction,” he added.

On Monday, Shah is scheduled to make a whistle-stop tour of Lalbaugcha raja and the Ganpati installations at the homes of Fadnavis, Shinde and city BJP chief Ashish Shelar. The political campaign will be ratcheted up following Shah’s visit. He is expected to take stock of the tussle between two factions of the Shiv Sena, each trying to claim Balasaheb Thackeray’s legacy, and the likely scenario once the Supreme Court gives its judgement on petitions related to the split in the Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, amid speculations of an upcoming split in Maharashtra Congress, top state leaders in the party reached New Delhi on Saturday. Former chief minister Ashok Chavan who has been dogged by defection rumours, despite him formally denying them, met several Congress leaders in New Delhi. It is not yet clear what transpired in these meetings.