Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar to share dais with Rahul Gandhi at Congress rally in Mumbai 

Mumbai, August 17

Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar will share the stage with Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in Mumbai to mark the birth anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi on August 20.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC in-charge for Maharashtra, Ramesh Chennithala, will also attend the rally to be organised at Bandra Kurla Complex, the party stated on Saturday.

The Congress has planned several programmes in Mumbai, the birthplace of Rajiv Gandhi, to mark his birth anniversary.

MVA constituents — the Congress, NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) — had declared to contest the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections together. Deliberations for the sharing of seats are yet to gather momentum.

A meeting of MVA allies was held on August 16 in which Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray demanded the alliance declare its chief ministerial face in advance without waiting for the scorecard of each constituent in the assembly elections, due in October-November.

MVA trounced the Mahayuti alliance in Lok Sabha elections by bagging 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, with BJP losing 14 constituencies of the 23 it had won in 2019.