Mumbai, April 29 (IANS) On Maharashtra Day May 1, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will organise its ‘Vajramuth’ series of rallies in Mumbai which is billed as a run up to the civic bodies polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Mumbai rally is expected to be a tester for the MVA’s internal differences that keep bursting in the open at regular intervals, though the partners – Congress-Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena (UBT) swear that all is well among them
Putting up a united show, the three allies have got into the act with teasers for the rally planned in the Bandra Kurla Complex on Monday, which is also International Labour Day.
Recently, the MVA suffered a major hiccup amid reports that the NCP’s Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar was planning to quit and switch over to the ruling saffron alliance of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, all the party bigwigs ranging from NCP President Sharad Pawar have rubbished it as rumours, though his nephew Ajit Pawar has also unabashedly revealed his CM ambitions, keeping the issue smoking.
The rally will also come in the wake of the strong opposition to the upcoming Arab-supported Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Complex in Ratnagiri, with police caning and tear gassing of the protestors on Friday, resulting in strong reactions from the MVA.
The issue is likely to figure in a big way and serve to kickstart the campaign for the upcoming civic elections and later the parliament general elections.
The rally will serve as an opportunity to the ex-CM and Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray to cover lost ground in the birthplace of the original Shiv Sena, founded by his father, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.
However, after the vertical split in the party in June 2022, Thackeray lost the party name-symbol to the Shinde faction in Oct. 2022, but the matter continues to flare up at regular intervals.
–IANS
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