Home Minister Amit Shah held a press conference on Sunday afternoon and thanked the people of Assam and Bengal for coming out and voting in record numbers. HM Shah said that Bengal witnessed a huge voter turnout of 84% on the first phase of voting. Amit Shah claimed that BJP will win 26 seats out of 30 seats that went under polling in the first phase.
The BJP leader also said that seeing the voter turnout and the response in the rallies in Assam, BJP is assured of 37 out of 47 seats in the northeastern state.
While discussing BJP's goals and performance in rallies in Bengal and Assam Amit Shah also answered a question that gave a new political twist to the crisis in Maharashtra.
When media asked that sources have revealed about a meeting between him and NCP Chief Sharad Pawar in Ahmedabad, Amit Shah said, "Everything can't be made public."
According to ABP sources, 2 NCP leaders visited Ahmedabad for a secret meeting with some businessman and interestingly Amit Shah also reached Ahmedabad during the same time. Shah's reply has hinted that the meeting might turn significant in the coming days when the Maharashtra government is facing a new crisis as Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut trained guns on Anil Deshmukh claiming in his Saamna editorial that the NCP leader got the Maharashtra Home Minister's chair by accident.
In the Shiv Sena mouthpiece column, Raut stated that Anil Deshmukh accidentally got the post of Home Minister. He further questioned how Deshmukh could be unaware of Sachin Vaze doing “vasooli” while sitting in Mumbai Police Commissioner’s office.
In his article, Sanjay Raut wrote, "If a junior officer like Sachin Vaze was running a (money) collection racket from the Mumbai police commissioner's office, why was the home minister not aware of it?"
The Shiv Sena MP further attacked Deshmukh, saying that Anil Deshmukh had accidentally got the post of Home Minister. Jayant Patil and Dilip Walse refused to accept the post of Home Minister then Sharad Pawar handed it over to Deshmukh, he stated.
According to reports, Sanjay Raut's U-Turn on Anil Deshmukh and Amit Shah's meeting with NCP Chief Sharad Pawar is raising questions on the Maha Vikas Aghadi government's stability.