BJP-Shiv Sena campaign to start on March 23

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena and BJP will kick start their joint campaign from March 24 at Kolhapur. The decision was taken by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in a late night meeting Tuesday. Workers of both parties will meet at Amaravati on March 15. Both parties in a joint statement have confirmed the same.

The Nationalist Congress Party’s Dhananjay Mahadik presently represents Kolhapur. Mr Mahadik’s cousin is a MLA from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In order to resolve the differences between the second-rung leaders of both parties, it has been decided to appoint coordinators for each region. Workers and leaders from Marathwada, Mumbai, Vidarbha and north Maharashtra will hold meetings in their respective regions before the first rally.

Before the first rally on March 24, joint workers’ rallies will be held on March 15, 17 and 18. Rallies will be organised in Amaravati and Nagpur on March 15, Aurangabad and Nashik on March 17, and Pune and Navi Mumbai on March 18. However, the date for Mumbai’s joint workers’ rallies will be declared later. The chief minister and the Shiv Sena chief will hold interactions with party workers in these rallies.

Aditya Thackeray, Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Subhash Desai and Milind Narvekar also attended the meeting.