Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to sound poll bugle from Maharashtra CM’s home turf

He will address a mega rally in Nagpur on February 2

Kicking off the Shiv Sena’s poll campaign, party chief Uddhav Thackeray will hold a mega rally in Nagpur – chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s home turf – on February 2.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. (HT FILE)

Even as there is no clarity so far on an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Sena has gone ahead with chalking out rallies and other tours of its party chief.

However, Sena leaders maintained that Thackeray’s address in Pandharpur on December 24, 2018 was its start of the poll campaign. Senior Sena leader Anandrao Adsul, an MP from Amravati, dismissed suggestions that Nagpur was chosen to kick-off the campaign as part of sending out any ‘signal’ to the BJP, which has a strong presence in the region. “We did one (rally) in Pandharpur, now we’ll do one in Nagpur. There is no specific reason behind selecting Nagpur; It is an important city in Vidarbha. It should not be viewed as Nagpur is a stronghold of the chief minister or [Union minister Nitin] Gadkari. Then whose stronghold was Pandharpur?” he asked.

Adsul added that Thackeray is going to hold rallies in Nashik in north Maharashtra and in south Maharashtra’s Sangli. However, the dates for the same are yet to be fixed. “One thing is clear, that the elections are around the corner, therefore we are going ahead with our plan. There are rallies being planned; in Nagpur we are expecting about 3 lakh people,” said Adsul.

Meanwhile, Sena leaders maintain there is no movement on discussions on alliance with the BJP. A Sena MP said the BJP tells newspapers and television channels that it intends to have an alliance with the Sena, but no leader has come to Thackeray to hold talks so far.