30 August,2023 05:07 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
MVA leaders on Wednesday held a press conference ahead of I-N-D-I-A meet in Mumbai. Pic/Shadab Khan
As many as 63 representatives from 28 political parties will attend the third meeting of I-N-D-I-A alliance meet on August 31 and September 1, NCP president Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday, the PTI reported.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Sharad Pawar expressed confidence that the opposition alliance will provide a formidable alternative to bring about political change, according to the PTI.
Sharad Pawar said that there has been no discussion on seat sharing within I-N-D-I-A, as per the PTI.
Sharad Pawar said that there is no confusion over NCP. People will teach those who have left a lesson, he added, targeting estranged nephew Ajit Pawar who joined the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra last month.
Asked about BSP chief Mayawati, Sharad Pawar said, it is not known on whose side she is. Earlier she has had dialogue with BJP," the news agency reported on Wednesday.
Former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray said the alliance of opposition parties belonging to different ideologies has a common objective of protecting democracy.
On I-N-D-I-A alliance PM face, Uddhav Thackeray said, "We have many choices for PM candidates. But what choice does BJP have, except one."
To a query on the issue of who will be I-N-D-I-A convenor, Thackeray asked, who is NDA convenor ".
Former CM and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan said in 2019, non-BJP parties got 23 crore votes, while BJP got 22 crore. If we work together, we can win," he added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Tuesday said that the party will hold a grand felicitation for its senior leader Rahul Gandhi, who was recently reinstated as an MP, when he arrives in Mumbai this week for a meeting of the opposition I-N-D-I-A bloc.
Nana Patole also said that the constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) - Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) group with Sharad Pawar - will discuss the seat-sharing formula for next year's Lok Sabha polls on the basis of merit.
"The autocratic Modi government in the country took action against the Congress leader MP Rahul Gandhi out of political vendetta but he did not budge and bravely faced Modi's dictatorship without any fear. Rahul Gandhi instead gave the message of âDaro Mat' (do not be afraid). Keeping in mind the sentiment of all Congress workers, Gandhi will be felicitated on September 1 in Mumbai," he said.
(with PTI inputs)
