MVA top guns Pawar and Sakpal absent from Thackeray cousins' rally
Sharad Pawar
and Congress state unit chief Harshawardhan Sakpal were not present for the "victory rally" called by MNS president
Raj Thackeray
and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief
Uddhav Thackeray
on Saturday over the withdrawal of Hindi as a language of study from primary classes.
While there were some senior politicians from the NCP (SP), PWP and RSP, no senior Congress functionary was present.
NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule and MLA Jitendra Award were present, as were Peasants and Workers' Party (PWP) chief Jayant Patil and Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP). Among the few known Congress faces present was Bhalchandra Mungekar.
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All sat in the audience, including Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, until they were called on stage at the end.
Political analysts said the absence of Pawar and Sakpal was an indication that for the BMC and other local body polls, the MVA may not exist in its current form.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS might have an alliance, while the Congress and NCP (SP) were likely to have an alliance while taking along other MVA constituents like the Samajwadi Party (SP) into their front.
"With Raj's hardline 'Marathi manoos' and earlier anti-north Indian stand, and also the hardline Hindutva stand, especially on the issue of loudspeakers on mosques, the Congress and NCP (SP) would want to stay away from the Thackeray brothers or face the risk of losing their Muslim, North Indian, South Indian, and Dalit vote in local body polls.
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Also, with Raj's MNS in the alliance, seat sharing in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Thane, and other cities in the MMR would be difficult within the MVA.
So for now, it looks like it was a studied decision of the Congress and Pawar to keep away from the victory rally and not be seen as playing second fiddle for the BMC and other local body polls," a political observer said.
Congress functionaries said that Sakpal did not receive any formal invitation.
Pawar said that he would not participate in the rally due to his previously scheduled programmes.
"The Congress is wary of Raj Thackeray's presence, and this is a reunion of the Thackerays and not the MNS's entry into the MVA. The MVA anyway has been a fractured front after the drubbing in the state assembly polls. The Thackeray reunion helps the Sena (UBT) and MNS to salvage their parties from political oblivion. They are largely focusing on Mumbai and MMR and maybe Pune and Nashik, but the Congress and NCP (SP) have to regain their bastions in the rest of Maharashtra from the Mahayuti.
So for them, it makes sense to keep out of the Thackeray family reunion. The Sena (UBT) will also benefit by moving away from the Congress and be seen as leaving its core Hindutva and Marathi Manoos ideology. Charges of Muslim appeasement on them will also not stick anymore if they don't ally with Congress. So for now, it looks like a new Sena (UBT)-MNS Marathi front is on the cards, while the Congress and NCP (SP) could go together and bank on the secular, minority, and Dalit votes," the observer said.
Raut said that Congress netas did not come since they had an important meeting in Delhi but that they were in touch. "This is a moment that brings joy to the people of Maharashtra. Best wishes. The voice of Marathi, of Maharashtra's pride...! To uphold Maharashtra's pride unbroken, I attended the victory rally, which provides extraordinary energy to fight. Through this event, I found the direction to strive for the eternal honour of Mother Marathi and the Marathi soil.
I wholeheartedly thank everyone who attended this event with a resolve to fight for Marathi pride," Sule said in a post on X after the event.
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