Today in Politics: Last leg of Tamil Nadu campaign, Amit Shah in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra

Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s campaign schedule on Thursday is packed with temple visits and rallies.

He will first visit Mandla in Madhya Pradesh to perform a puja at the Maa Narmada Pujon Rapta ghat. After that, he will address a rally at the local police ground. Mandla will vote in Phase 1 of the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for April 19, and the BJP’s Faggan Singh Kulaste will take on the Congress’ Omkar Singh Markaam here.

In the afternoon, he will travel to Katni in Madhya Pradesh where he will go to the Vijaynath Dham mandir in the town. Katni falls under the Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency from where the BJP’s VD Sharma is again contesting.

The BJP had won 28 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh last time, and it will be seen if it can manage to retain the tally in a state that falls into the Hindi heartland grouping that the BJP almost swept last time.

Shah will also travel to Maharashtra, which has all the indications of being a neck-and-neck fight so far, with both the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, NCP(Sharadchandra Pawar) as well as the ruling NDA (BJP, Shiv Sena NCP) vowing to go all out. The coming election is also the first major electoral contest after the respective splits in the Sena and the NCP.

Shah will address a gathering in Nanded, his first election rally in Maharashtra. Nanded will vote in the second phase scheduled for April 26. Here, the BJP has fielded sitting MP Prataprao Chikhlikar as its candidate, while the Congress party’s former MLA Vasantrao Yashwant is in the fray.

The Nanded Lok Sabha seat is among the eight constituencies in Marathwada region — a region that has remained a challenge for the BJP. Despite many efforts, the BJP has not been able to make deep inroads in