Maharashtra polls: Narendra Modi to begin campaign from Gopinath Munde bastion Beed

With ten days remaining for campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start his public meetings in Maharashtra, one rally each in Beed and Aurangabad, from Saturday. Later in the day, he will hold a public address in Mumbai.

Party sources said the idea of starting from Beed can be attributed to the fact that it used to be the bastion of Gopinath Munde, a senior BJP leader who died in a road accident in June. Aurangabad being the heart of Marathwada, the party wants the region to take home Modi's message.

BJP national vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told mediapersons that the PM would be visiting Maharashtra for two days for the first leg of his campaign and would address three rallies on Sunday. He said that these three public meetings would be held at Kolhapur, Gondia and Nashik.

While BJP has chalked out a plan for holding more than 20 public meetings of Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi too will be holding a few public addresses. After the release of his party's election manifesto on Thursday, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said that Sonia Gandhi would be spending two days in the state, while her son would be campaigning for one day.

Congress insiders said that the state unit was toying with the idea of holding Rahul Gandhi's road shows since public meetings may not evoke good response.