MUMBAI: Three top MVA constituents Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray met first time after the 2024 general elections here on August 20 at an event to celebrate the 80th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at a special event at Shanmukhananda Auditorium.
The state Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) president and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray, besides representatives of other allies, joined the mega-event.
However, the late Rajiv Gandhi’s son and now Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is not expected to come for the celebrations here as he will be busy with other events in New Delhi, a party leader said.
August 20’s meeting of the KhargePawar-Thackeray trio is described as crucial since it is coming ahead of the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections and the leaders could hold informal discussions on the same.
They will take the opportunity to iron out certain sharp differences facing the three allies – issues like the ‘CM face’, the prickly seat distribution, claims and counter-claims over certain constituencies in Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and other important centres, etc.
In the Lok Sabha polls, of the total 48 constituencies, the three parties bagged 32 seats, comprising Congress (13), Shiv Sena’s (UBT) 9 and NCP’s (SP) 8, besides one independent who is now supporting the MVA; while the ruling MahaYuti was relegated backward with just 17 wins.
For the looming state Assembly polls, the MVA hopes to repeat the Lok Sabha ‘magic’ and is confident of bagging between 170-200 of the total 288 seats in the Legislative Assembly – while the ruling MahaYuti of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party has trashed the Opposition’s claims.
