Hingoli (Maharashtra): The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) put up a powerful present of energy at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra Thursday and Friday, with a number of leaders of the alliance — together with Thackeray scion Aaditya — becoming a member of the Maharashtra leg of the nationwide march.
Aaditya, whose household has criticised the Gandhi household a number of instances previously, joined the yatra for about 8 km Friday and was even seen hugging and strolling hand-in-hand with Rahul.
Amongst Congress allies who joined the 3,570-km yatra march have been Nationalist Congress Get together Supriya Sule, NCP state chief Jayant Patil, and Ambadas Danve, who’s the chief of opposition in Maharashtra’s Legislative Council and a pacesetter from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
After he joined the yatra at Hingoli in Marathwada, Aaditya — the son of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray — informed ThePrint that it was important for individuals from various ideologies to come back collectively “for a vibrant democracy”.
“What’s fallacious if two ideologies come collectively for the nation,” he requested, referring to the frequent criticism that the Congress and the Shiv Sena had conflicting ideologies.
“Those that are [ supposed to be] of the identical ideology needed to complete us off, push us out of politics, eat us. Immediately, what has occurred in Maharashtra is Congress, NCP, and the Sena coming collectively. [We may be from] completely different ideologies but it surely’s what a vibrant democracy is about — working collectively for the betterment of our nation, individuals, and the Structure,” he stated.
Aaditya was apparently referring to the BJP, the get together that’s now within the ruling alliance for Sena insurgent and present chief minister, Eknath Shinde. In June, Shinde led a insurrection that triggered a vertical cut up within the Shiv Sena, bringing down Uddhav’s MVA authorities.
Aaditya’s presence on the yatra is seen as one more signal of the rising closeness between the Congress and Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of the Shiv Sena. Since first allying collectively in 2019 to type the MVA, ties between the 2 events have come a great distance.
Congress’s communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh agreed there have been ideological variations between the 2 events however stated that the MVA was shaped on the idea of a Frequent Minimal Programme (CMP).
“I had a small function in making the CMP. That was an earthquake in Maharashtra’s politics as we needed to discover a halfway since Shiv Sean’s and Congress’s ideologies are completely different. And we discovered it,” Ramesh informed ThePrint.
Flagged off on 23 August from Kanyakumari, the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is aimed toward overlaying 3,570-km throughout India and has to this point lined Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The yatra, which is scheduled to be in Maharashtra till 20 November, is anticipated to achieve Srinagar in late January subsequent 12 months.
Additionally Learn: Six the explanation why Bharat Jodo Yatra isn’t merely a routine political ‘tamasha’
‘Our fortunes will run forward’
On the yatra, slogans in opposition to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde hire the air each time the rally handed the rival Sena faction’s constituency.
“We’ve come right here as a result of the invitation was despatched to Uddhav Thackeray and he accepted it,” Subhash Wankhede, a Shiv Sainik from Nanded, informed ThePrint. “There’s autocracy within the nation. Guidelines are bent [to suit the leadership]. That’s why we’re supporting the yatra.”
In the meantime, NCP leaders like Supriya Sule joined the yatra at Nanded Thursday night and even attended a public rally within the metropolis the place Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to talk.
“NCP chief Sharad Pawar requested us to symbolize our get together and prolong our assist to Bharat Jodo Yatra. We’re seeing that Rahul Gandhi is even working at this yatra. Now we are able to say that our fortunes are additionally going to run going ahead,” Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil stated in his speech on the rally.
Ramesh informed ThePrint that though organised by the Congress, the yatra would welcome anybody who was prepared to struggle the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“Though this can be a yatra of a political get together, [the] Congress get together just isn’t an NGO and we prolonged our invites to everybody who needed to struggle the ideology of BJP/RSS. And whoever needs to struggle an ideological battle and we welcome them,” he stated.
From rivals to allies
Though ideological rivals, the connection between the Sena and the Congress has all the time been one thing of an enigma.
Inside a 12 months of the Sena’s delivery in 1966, there have been frequent clashes between the get together and the communists, whom it noticed as “anti-nationals”.
The ruling Congress selected to show a blind eye in direction of these clashes — which have been primarily centered round Mumbai’s mill districts — for the reason that weakening of the leftist motion can be politically advantageous to the get together.
The Congress’s strategic silence led the communists to name Sena ‘Vasant Sena‘ for allegedly pushing then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik’s agenda.
There have been additionally different cases when Bal Thackeray, the Sena founder and the daddy of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, got here in assist of the Congress.
As an example, on the presidential election of 2007, Bal Thackeray went in opposition to the Sena’s then-ally BJP to assist the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) candidate Pratibha Patil. When requested, Sena had stated it couldn’t oppose a Maharashtrian.
Actually, it was Thackeray who supported the much-reviled Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
“We have now supported one another earlier as properly. Bal Thackeray supported the candidature of Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee regardless of having completely different ideologies,” the Sena founder’s grandson Aaditya informed ThePrint on the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The final two years, nonetheless, have seen a sluggish transformation of their relationship.
Particularly, the connection between Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray has seen a notable change.
That is vital as a result of, in 2019, it was the Gandhi scion who had reportedly opposed an alliance with the Sena for ideological causes and was upset with senior get together leaders just like the late Ahmed Patel for having brokered it.
The alliance got here collectively solely after the three allies — the Congress, the Sena, and the NCP — agreed on a Frequent Minimal Programme.
“The CMP needed to be shaped and as soon as it was achieved, Congress got here on board and at present we’re part of MVA,” Ramesh informed ThePrint.
This rising closeness between the 2 events confirmed — in January 2020, Aaditya met Rahul in Delhi, two months after their events solid an alliance.
In his speech on the Sena’s Dussehra rally earlier in October, Uddhav stated that when his personal individuals “deceived him”, it was Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar who stood by him.
The speech got here nearly two months after inside strife and a subsequent insurrection inside the Shiv Sena triggered the Uddhav-led MVA to break down, making method for a brand new authorities below insurgent Sena chief Eknath Shinde.
The Congress too reciprocated. On the final cupboard assembly of the Uddhav authorities — held simply earlier than it fell — the Congress supported Thackeray’s resolution to rename Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv.
The choice got here regardless of the Congress get together’s long-held place in opposition to such a reputation change.
Aaditya sees this alliance as a method of saving India’s democracy.
“In case you have a look at the nation at the moment, what is going on is that anybody who’s voicing or talking the reality is going through inquiries and unlawful arrests. That’s a hazard to our democracy,” Thackeray junior informed ThePrint.
That is an up to date model of the story
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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