Post MVA’s Nagpur rally to gun for Shinde-Fadnavis, Congress to hold Rahul-Priyanka show against Modi govt

Uddhav Sena says no problem, but state Congress still appears a divided house with leaders continuing to spar in public

"Rahul Gandhi's rally is part of the nationwide rallies planned by the Congress against the Modi government's policies," Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said. (File)

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Once again, the public relations department of the Maharashtra Congress appears all at sea. While the next Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)’s “Vajramooth” rally is scheduled in Nagpur on April 16, the Congress alone is planning a separate rally in the same city a week later, in which Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will jointly attack the Modi government’s policies.

Curiously, while a state Congress leader objected to the timing of the rally by the Gandhis, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) said it has “no problem” with it, indicating a lowering of tensions between the two parties after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took umbrage at Rahul’s alleged mocking of Vinayak Savarkar, who is a Marathi icon for the Sena.

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“The Congress is holding rallies across the country against the Modi government’s policies favouring certain industrialists and trying to wreck our democracy. The first rally is likely to take place at Kolar, the second one in Nagpur. The Nagpur rally will be held sometime between April 20 and 25. The exact date has not been fixed so far,” the state Congress’s chief spokesperson Atul Londhe told The Indian Express Thursday.

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Asked why instead of one, two rallies are being planned in Nagpur at such a short interval, Londhe said, “Rahul Gandhi’s rally is part of the nationwide rallies planned by the Congress against the Modi government’s policies, while from the MVA’s ‘Vajramooth’ rally, the three parties will unitedly highlight the state government’s failures.”

The Maharashtra government is led by the alliance of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-headed Shiv Sena and the BJP, with the latter’s Devendra Fadnavis being the Deputy CM.

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Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said the MVA does not have issues with the Congress holding a rally within such a short time after its rally. “The Congress’s rally is part of its move to hold such rallies across the country, while the MVA rallies are being held across Maharashtra, specifically targeting the state government, though the central government will also be attacked,” he said.

Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh, who is facing disciplinary action for breathing fire against MPCC chief Nana Patole, said, “Instead of holding one rally and projecting a united picture, where is the need to hold two different rallies at such a short interval? I think this is deliberately being done by MPCC chief Nana Patole to get out of the MVA. Earlier, he had skipped the MVA rally in Aurangabad…”

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Later, Deshmukh claimed the Congress disciplinary committee had informed him that they would be sending him a show cause notice for his harsh words against Patole, asking him to explain why action should not be taken against him for “anti-party activities”. Unfazed, he went on to tell the Express, “Yesterday, I waited the entire day, but did not get any notice from the party. I have done nothing wrong… Whatever I have said is in the interest of the party.”

Patole had skipped the MVA’s Aurangabad rally, drawing a sharp reaction from the BJP and exposing a lack of coordination among the MVA allies. While Sanjay Raut had said Patole was not well and hence could not attend the rally, the latter himself claimed “some people were under the wrong impression” as he was well, without explaining why he had missed the rally.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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