Maharashtra CM attends Sonia Gandhi’s meet, says Opposition unity must stay intact

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who also attended the virtual meeting, called for time-bound efforts by the Opposition parties to deal with the issues the country is reeling under

Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray batted for the Opposition unity and said that the task before all the parties is to make the people believe that they stand together. Thackeray, who participated in the meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday evening, spoke of fighting together against the ruling party in the country to save the democracy, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said.

Uddhav Thackeray.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who also attended the virtual meeting, called for time-bound efforts by the Opposition parties to deal with the issues the country is reeling under. He also suggested collectively prioritising the issues and resolving them one by one.

Gandhi met 19 Opposition leaders in a virtual meeting and asked them to unite and fight the 2024 elections. During the meeting, Gandhi said that the monsoon session of the Parliament saw “determined unity” of all Opposition parties. She, as per the statement from the party, said that the unity has to be sustained in the Parliament but there was a “larger political battle has to be fought outside it”.

Raut, who was also a part of the meeting said, “Uddhav ji said that the unity among the Opposition parties must remain intact. Besides that, he said that we have to give people the confidence that the political parties that have come together will remain united. Uddhav ji spoke about fighting together and saving democracy.”

According to senior Shiv Sena functionaries, Thackeray believed that the unity of the Opposition parties has to be accepted by the people if they have to give a fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections. “The message should go down to people that the Opposition parties have united to bring down BJP and the reins of the nation are in safe hands which will work cohesively if the people choose them as an alternative to BJP,” a senior functionary said.

Pawar, meanwhile, said that the current scenario in India appears very gloomy. Farmers have been protesting for many months and it is an anguishing picture for a democratic country like India.

In the meeting, the veteran leader slammed the Narendra Modi-led Central government and said the current dispensation has failed to address and resolve issues such as inflation, economic slowdown, Covid mitigation, unemployment, border disputes, issues related to the minority communities among others.

“The present government has failed to address and resolve all these issues. Those who believe in democracy and secularism; those who like to work together to save the democratic principles and ethos of our country must come together. A time-bound action programme needs to be taken up collectively and I strongly suggest that instead of dealing with all these issues together, we must collectively prioritise each issue and solve them one by one to give our country a good present and future,” he said in a series of tweets posted after the meeting.

Pawar led NCP is one of the three ruling parties in Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray. He has been a proponent of a united front against the ruling BJP at the Centre.

On June 25, Pawar said that an opposition front was the need of the hour, and it cannot be formed without Congress. He also said people want an alternative and it is the responsibility of the political leadership to fulfil their expectations. He made the statement in the backdrop of a meeting of leaders from many political parties and civil society members organized by Yashwant Sinha led Rashtra Manch, at Pawar’s Delhi residence early this week.

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