Stepping up outreach efforts ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday toured Maharashtra's Palghar parliamentary seat, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.
Mr Thakur held a series of meetings with local BJP and RSS leaders in Palghar and relished a traditional meal at the residence of Surekha Damodar Kaasat at Raeespada village in Manor.
The four-term Lok Sabha member was seen sitting cross-legged on the floor and relishing millet flatbreads, called 'bhakri', along with some local vegetables.
Rajendra Gavit, a Shiv Sena candidate, had retained the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 elections, which he had contested in alliance with the BJP.
Anurag Thakur addressed the Mahila Morcha and the Core Committee of the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency and reviewed the implementation of central welfare schemes. He also held discussions with local leaders of the RSS.
Thakur toured Shirsat village in Vasai Tehsil and paid a condolence visit to the families of the persons who died due to sunstroke at a function to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan Award on Appasaheb Dharmadhikari on Sunday.
Thakur held a meeting with the social media cell and interacted with the beneficiaries of central welfare schemes.
The BJP has identified 160 Lok Sabha seats where it is paying special attention to improve its poll prospects in the general elections next year.
These are the seats where the BJP had ended as runners-up or in third position in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP contested 436 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and emerged victorious in 303 seats.
Of the 160 seats identified by the BJP, 16 are in Maharashtra, including Baramati - the pocket borough of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had toured Baramati, which is represented in Lok Sabha by Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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