New Delhi: The Congress will stage a mega INDIA alliance rally in Mumbai on March 17 to mark the culmination of Rahul Gandhi’s nationwide Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. “The yatra will enter Maharashtra on March 12 from Nandurbar. There will be a rally in Bhiwandi on March 15. The yatra will culminate in Mumbai on March 16 and there will be a mega INDIA alliance rally in Mumbai on March 17,” AICC secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
As the Mumbai rally marks the culmination of Rahul Gandhi’s 6,700 km long nationwide yatra from Manipur in the north-east to Mumbai in the west, the entire Congress top brass, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Working Committee members, state unit chiefs, CLP leaders and MPs will attend the show, said party insiders.
The Mumbai rally will be the second INDIA alliance show of strength after the first one was held in Patna on March 3. “The Patna rally was hugely successful. Similarly, the Mumbai rally will be a massive show of strength. In the coming days more such joint rallies will be taken out in different states,” said Dua.
The AICC functionary claimed Rahul’s Nyay Yatra had been successful despite attempts by the BJP to discredit it. “The yatra has been very successful as it brought to fore Rahul Gandhi’s social justice agenda and issues like joblessness, exam paper leaks, atrocities on women and Dalits and price rise, which the Central government brushes under the carpet. The allies, too, have been raising similar issues,” said Dua.
The yatra has also fostered teamwork within the alliance, said the AICC functionary. “The allies are also excited and they are helping us out with arrangements for the yatra in parts of Maharashtra. This coordination will certainly be of help in the coming polls,” said Dua. According to Congress insiders, the yatra will not only benefit the grand old party in the upcoming parliamentary polls, but also the INDIA alliance partners.
“See, the yatra passed through around 100 Lok Sabha seats across 14 states. Many of those seats are not being contested by the Congress, but by our allies. So, this massive public outreach will benefit the opposition alliance as a whole. For the grand old party, the yatra will certainly help us significantly improve our 2019 tally of 52 seats,” a senior AICC functionary said.
Before the Mumbai rally, the grand old party will speed up efforts to conclude the Maharashtra seat-sharing pact between the Congress-Shiv Sena UBT-NCP Sharad Pawar and a few smaller parties like the Shetkari Sangathan of Raju Shetty and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi of Prakash Ambedkar. “We have done negotiations on 42 out of 48 seats. The remaining ones will be completed soon.
The MVA meetings are taking place regularly and the Congress Screening Committee for Maharashtra will be held in Delhi on March 10,” said a senior AICC functionary. AICC leaders claimed the Maharashtra Congress was in high spirits even after the exit of three senior leaders Ashok Chavan, Milind Deora and Baba Siddiqui and was working hard to prepare for the Mumbai rally.
Read more: Rahul Gandhi-Led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra To Enter Maharashtra On Mar 10
