Post-INDIA conclave, Sharad Pawar-Uddhav Thackeray meet for poll plans

Mumbai: Shiv Sena-UBT President Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday called on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar to initiate the combined poll strategy among the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners.

Thackeray was accompanied by party MP Sanjay Raut and Pawar was joined by state party President Jayant Patil, for the meeting that lasted nearly 90 minutes at the Pawar home in south Mumbai.

Both the Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP have suffered vertical splits after the collapse of the MVA government in June 2022, and are hoping to ride on a purported sympathy wave generated in their favour.

The meeting also came against the backdrop of the Maratha reservations issue that has rocked the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-NCP (AP), coming ahead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls due in 2024.

Even as the government grappled with the fallout of the Maratha quotas imbroglio, the OBCs and Dhangars have also gone on the warpath, and group clashes which killed one person in Satara on Sunday, posing huge challenges to CM Eknath Shinde’s regime.

Simultaneously, the state Congress has launched a series of ‘Jansamvad Yatras’ all over Maharashtra to highlight the failures of the BJP governments at the centre and in the state on various fronts including runaway inflation, massive unemployment, the economic crises, the insecurity among women, Dalits and other sections of society.

Tuesday’s Mumbai meeting came a day ahead of the 14-member INDIA block coordination committee to discuss the national Opposition parties' election strategy for 2024 and also for the upcoming Special Session of Parliament.

The meet will be hosted by Pawar at his New Delhi residence on Wednesday and top leaders of 14 parties across India are expected to attend the brain-storming session.