Image: IANS
MUMBAI: Congress Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala held a meeting with local party functionaries in Mumbai and announced that the party would not form an alliance with the Shiv Sena-UBT in the BMC elections. However, this will not apply to civic elections in 28 other places.For the BMC, he said, the Congress would instead invite like-minded parties, such as the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, to ally with it. While speaking to the media alongside Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad, Chennithala said, “We will fight the election against the BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT).”He added, “It’s a local body election, and local leaders expressed their willingness to fight this election alone, so we agreed with it. We will have an alliance with like-minded parties. I spoke to Prakash Ambedkar over the phone, and a party delegation will meet him on Sunday to discuss the details.”Varsha Gaikwad said, “Our motto will be to fight for vikash (development), not for vivad (dispute). We are against the divisive politics of caste, religion, region, and language. Pollution in the city and corruption in the BMC are among the key issues we will highlight in the election.”Chennithala added, “We will bring a chargesheet on corruption in the BMC and will also bring a manifesto document for the city, outlining what we will do once we win the election in the BMC.” Chennithala held a separate meeting with the Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal and other state netas to discuss the election strategy in other places. He insisted that wherever the local functionaries express willingness to have an alliance with other parties, including MVA partners, they will be allowed to decide. However, he was cautious to maintain a distance from the Raj Thackeray-led MNS.
