Today in Politics: Amit Shah kicks off BJP’s Assembly poll preparations with Haryana meeting

On Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to begin a series of meetings as part of the BJP’s preparations for the coming Assembly elections in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, expected to be held at the end of the year.

First, Shah is set to chair an organisational meeting in Haryana’s Panchkula to discuss the Assembly polls and the party’s strategy. “The BJP is moving forward strongly with the goal of forming the government for the third time in Haryana. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is coming to Panchkula on June 29 to hold a state executive meeting,” a party statement said.

In 2019, months after the BJP won the Lok Sabha elections in a landslide, the party struggled in the Assembly polls and fell short of the majority mark in the 90-member House. The party had then needed the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) to form the government.

However, there has since been more upheaval in the state for the BJP – ahead of these Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and JJP broke ties and the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Chief Minister with Nayab Singh Saini, keeping caste equations in mind. Moreover, the Lok Sabha polls saw the BJP’s tally get halved – the party had swept the state’s 10 parliamentary seats in 2019 and fell to five seats this year, with the Congress winning the remaining five.

After Haryana, Shah is expected to hold similar meetings in Maharashtra and Jharkhand following the conclusion of the ongoing Parliament session on July 4.

Meanwhile, CM Nitish Kumar is set to chair a national executive meeting of the Janata Dal (United), which recently returned to the NDA fold ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, in New Delhi on Saturday. Party insiders said during the meeting, various topics