Maha Congress to felicitate ‘hero’ Rahul Gandhi on Friday evening

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress will accord a grand felicitation to party MP Rahul Gandhi for standing up without fear before the ‘dictatorial’ Bharatiya Janata Party government, state party President Nana Patole said here on Tuesday.

For his courage in facing the vendetta of the BJP government without wavering, the state Congress will give Gandhi a grand felicitation here on Friday evening – in the presence of top leaders from all over India.

The grand felicitation programme will follow after the two-day National Opposition’s I.N.D.I.A. conclave that will be held at a five-star hotel in Santacruz on Aug.31-Sep.01.

“We have made full preparations to give a grand welcome to Rahul Gandhi when he steps in the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Rahul Gandhi has given the message of ‘fearlessness’ to the tyrannical regime of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Patole.

He recalled how the government had made false cases and accusations against Gandhi, disqualified him as a Lok Sabha Member and forced him to vacate his official residence, but he did not bend.

“After the Supreme Court verdict, the government had to restore Gandhi’s MP status. He took part in the no-confidence motion against the Modi government recently and attacked the regime on various issues, including the burning issue of Manipur,” said Patole.

Accompanied by senior leaders including state Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan, ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan, Dr. Bhalchandra Mungekar, state Women Wing President Sandhya Savvalakhe, and others, Patole interacted with mediapersons after a review of the final preparations for the upcoming I.N.D.I.A. conclave along with top leaders of the Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar).

The top Congress leadership including President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary K. C. Venugopal and others shall attend Gandhi’s felicitation programme at the state Congress headquarters in Dadar.

Responding to a question, Patole said that “there is no competition or confusion” among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies on the seat-sharing issue for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“The leaders of the parties, including Uddhav Thackeray have said that the seat allocation will be as per merits and we have also taken the same stand,” said Patole, indirectly junking Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut’s demand that his party would contest minimum 19 of the 48 parliamentary seats.

Slamming the BJP’s criticism of the I.N.D.I.A. Conclave, Chavan said that 28 parties across the country have come together and this has scared Modi and the NDA.

He pointed out that in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 62 percent of the people voted against Modi-BJP, but this time, the Opposition parties have decided not to allow such division of votes which can benefit the BJP.

“As the National Opposition alliance becomes stronger, the rattled BJP is attempting to promote some parties like Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of Telangana to split the Opposition votes,” Chavan pointed out.