Uddhav Thackeray and KC Venugopal discussed opposition unity for 2024 polls
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Monday, where they discussed opposition unity ahead of the national election in 2024 and alleged misuse of central agencies by the BJP government to target opposition leaders.
"I came here to meet Uddhav ji and to convey the message of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The message is very clear - in the current political situation in India and Maharashtra, Uddhav ji is fighting against anti-democratic forces. Democracy has been completely sabotaged by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, we have seen that. The ED and CBI are being used to target Uddhav ji's and other parties," Mr Venugopal told reporters after the meeting.
Mr Venugopal called for a "broader opposition unity", which is why Mr Kharge and Mr Gandhi met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar last week. The two Bihar leaders had also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a witness in the Delhi liquor policy case.
"The opposition will together fight the dictatorship of Narendra Modi. There may be differences in opinion. The Congress, Sena and NCP have their own ideology, but the country is facing bigger issues which we never faced. That's why we discussed all these issues and we are all in agreement that we all have to get together and fight these people," Mr Venugopal said.
Mr Gandhi will meet Mr Uddhav in Mumbai sometime, and the Sena chief will also visit Delhi soon, the Congress General Secretary said.
Agreeing with the visiting Congress leader, Mr Thackeray said everyone has their own ideology; however, their battle is to save democracy.
"Hum jab dosti nibhate hai, wo dosti nahi, rishta hota hai (for us, friendship is family)," Mr Thackeray told reporters. "We supported the BJP for 25 years, but they never really understood who is a friend and who is an enemy," he added.
The BJP has often taken swipes at the opposition's attempt to unite when there are disagreements and even outright hostility between some of them. Yesterday, Congress leader Ajay Maken asked the party not to "support" and "show any sympathy" to Mr Kejriwal as doing so would "confuse" the Congress cadre and "benefit" the BJP.
Mr Maken's comment comes a day after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge dialled Mr Kejriwal and discussed the need for opposition unity to face the BJP in the national election next year.
A week before that, Mr Pawar, whose NCP is an ally of the Congress in Maharashtra, shredded some opposition parties' high-pitched campaign for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani Group-Hindenburg Research row, which stalled all business in the country's most important legislative body.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday last scoffed at the efforts of the opposition parties to defeat the BJP in 2024 and called their attempt at an alliance a "thugbandhan" (alliance of thugs).
"People are aware that these parties have no common policies or ideology and make false promises to win elections. Such experiments had failed in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls," Mr Thakur said.