Opposition to leave call on alliance to local units for first phase of civic polls

The meeting did not finalise about the inclusion of Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the MVA. The Congress had kept distance with the MNS in the wake of ongoing Bihar Assembly polls, which ended on Tuesday.

A section within the Congress is ready to ally with the MNS depending on local political situation while another group wants to keep the party at distance, due to its aggressive stand on migrants, especially north Indians and Raj Thackeray’s previous stand regarding Muslims.

The meeting was joined by NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule, party state unit chief Shashikant Shinde, Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal, Sena (UBT) leader MLC Anil Parab, Lok Sabha MP Anil Desai, Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP) and Sachin Kharat of Republican Party of India (Kharat).

After the meeting Sapkal said that the decision has been taken to undertake necessary coordination to contest the election with unified force. Sule said that the discussion was about local condition at each district and how to move forward. “We discussed the steps to be taken to move forward and the formation of coordination committee. A clear and complete picture will be out within next two to three days about the political stand of every party,” she said.

Sule also maintained that the committee will be formed to coordinate the working as INDIA bloc. “As far as inclusion of any other party is concerned, the decision will be taken by the top leaders of the front,” she said. Elections to 246 municipal councils and 42 municipal panchayats will be held under the first phase on December 2, and the counting will be held on December 3.

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