PM Modi to launch BJP's Maharashtra Assembly poll campaign from Saturday

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address around 15 election rallies across Maharashtra starting on Saturday for the 15 October assembly polls, a top party leader said on Thursday. On Saturday, Modi will address rallies in Beed and Aurangabad in the Marathwada region followed by Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, that evening, Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said. [caption id=“attachment_1740935” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold at least 15 election rallies in the state. AP[/caption] “We have planned out around 15-16 election rallies by the PM; There can be more if required,” he told media persons in Mumbai. Sahasrabuddhe expressed confidence that the BJP would win a majority on its own strength and form the government without requiring any post-poll alliances. To a question about former ally and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray opposing so many rallies by the prime minister in the wake of a “Modi wave”, Sahasrabuddhe countered that the BJP had full right to have the meetings and nobody could stop them. The BJP election rally in Mumbai will be addressed by Modi on Saturday evening 7 pm at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. Top state and central BJP leaders are expected to be present at the much-awaited rally which the party hopes could turn the tables on the other four major contending parties - the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena - for the elections. This is the same venue where Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray launched his party’s poll campaign two days ago and blasted the state BJP for snapping the two parties’ 25-year-old alliance. The build up to Modi’s rally has seen a series of public meetings by state BJP leaders and also union minister Nitin Gadkari in the state in the past few days. The BJP hopes to independently come to power for the first time since it ruled the state in coalition with the Shiv Sena between 1995-1999. IANS