Uddhav Thackeray to visit Delhi tomorrow; likely to meet Sonia Gandhi, Kharge

Shiv Sena (UBT) supremo and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will visit Delhi on Tuesday for 3 days. During his three-day-long visit to the national capital, Thackeray will likely meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other leaders of the INDIA bloc, newswire ANI reported. 

The development comes almost a day after senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the grand old party will sound the Maharashtra poll bugle on late PM Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary, i.e., August 20. After a meeting with state party leaders, he said that the party has invited Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Thackeray and NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar for the event.

Rahul Gandhi and Kharge will also be present at the event in Mumbai. Chennithala, who is also AICC in-charge of Maharashtra, said that the MVA is strong in the state. He said that seat-sharing discussions among MVA allies will take place on August 7. 

“There was no talk of seat sharing in today's meeting. We are going to contest as the MVA alliance and bring about change. People favour the MVA and that was evident in the Lok Sabha polls,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Apart from this, Chennithala also discussed strategy and issues to be highlighted in the upcoming assembly polls, as per the party's Mumbai unit chief Varsha Gaikwad. She said that she had discussions with Thackeray over the oppposition alliance's approach vis-a-vis seat sharing in the Mumbai assembly. 

“Talks are on. We will contest the assembly polls in alliance,” she said.

Meanwhile, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat said that the criteria for seat-sharing among allies will be discussed during the meeting. He added that swapping of seats is also on the cards as winning candidates will be fielded. Thorat's statement came after his meeting with Uddhav Thackeray, wherein planning of election rallies was also discussed. 

In the recently conducted Lok Sabha elections, the MVA outperformed the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The MVA won 30 out of the 48 seats in the state. The independent MP Vishal Patil, a Congress rebel, became an associate member of the party, taking the number of opposition MPs to 31. The Assembly elections in Maharashtra are likely to be held in October this year.