Rahul Gandhi may meet Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai soon

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to meet Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai, party MP Sanjay Raut has indicated amid reports of the Gandhi family scion reaching out to regional parties to stitch up a coalition against the BJP.

On Monday, Congress general Secretary K C Venugopal will call on Thackeray at Matoshree.

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“Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi are meeting leaders of various opposition parties. They have already had discussions with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and JDU leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Venugopal is coming to Mumbai on Monday for a meeting with Thackeray during which details of a meeting between Thackeray, Gandhi and Kharge will be discussed.” Raut said on Friday.

The Sena leader further said that he had invited Gandhi to visit Mumbai during an interaction with the latter and Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. Later, Kharge and Thackeray spoke on the phone over it, he added.

The Venugopal-Thackeray meeting is important in the backdrop of differences between the two parties over the V D Savarkar controversy. Recently, there were reports of cracks in the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi after Pawar expressed his reservations over a JPC probe, as demanded by the Congress, into the Adani Group issue.

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All opposition parties would come together to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and Gandhi would be the anchor for such an alliance, Raut said. “Gandhi is a popular leader and people will stand with him in his fight against the BJP dictatorship. We have to keep our differences aside and ensure unity. The MVA will win 40 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.”