Congress to sound bugle for Maharashtra Assembly polls on Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary

Mumbai: Coinciding with the birth anniversary of late Rajiv Gandhi on August 20, the Congress will sound the bugle for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections in Mumbai. 

Pilot-turned-politician Rajiv Gandhi (August 20 1944 – May 21 1991) is a former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. 

A series of functions has been planned in Mumbai, in which Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wil be present.

The Congress have also invited NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray for the celebrations. 

Pawar and Thackeray are key allies of the I.N.D.I.A. opposition bloc. 

The details of the function was worked out at a meeting on Sunday, which was presided over by AICC general secretary Ramesh Chennithala.

The Maharashtra Congress leadership including state President Nana Patole, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and working President Naseem Khan among others were present. 

“Rajiv Gandhi was born in Mumbai. We shall be holding the birth anniversary celebrations in Mumbai in which Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will be present,” Chennithala said during a brief interaction with newspersons after the meeting. 

As far as the seat-sharing between the three Maha Vikas Aghadi partners are concerned, Chennithala said that all these would be discussed in the Mumbai meeting of the alliance on August 7. 

According to him, the MVA is in a very strong position because of people’s support and this was reflected in the recent Lok Sabha polls. 

The elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, which comprises 288 seats, is expected to be held in October 2024.