Mumbai: When the estranged Thackeray cousins reunited after nearly two decades at a rally in Mumbai on Sunday, one key ally was conspicuously absent from the event: the Congress.
The question everybody then asked was: Why did the Congress give the event a miss despite an invitation?
According to senior leaders in the Maharashtra Congress, the party is treading cautiously. With the Bihar elections approaching and given Raj Thackeray’s anti-migrant stance, the Congress didn’t want to risk alienating Hindi heartland voters.
“We are a national party. With Bihar assembly elections right around the corner, our party high command did not want us to take any risk,” a senior party leader from the state told ThePrint.
Some party leaders stayed away as they were miffed that a formal invitation wasn’t extended to them. However, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut told ThePrint that they had been invited.
“We had given an invitation to Congress. I had personally spoken to the leaders. But some of its leaders were going to be in Delhi, and hence they said they could not come. Also, there are many such events that Congress has and we don’t attend. So it is not a very big deal,” said Raut.
“Our alliance is intact. There is no threat to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). We are together in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. Local body polls have their own equations. No need to worry about the MVA,” he added.
The Congress party is also in wait-and-watch mode. “We have kept the decision-making for local bodies to our local units. Besides, we want to see whether the Thackerays are reuniting politically, or is it only for one topic that they have come together?” senior Congress leader Harshwardhan Sapkal told ThePrint.
“Besides, the BMC elections have not yet been announced. We will see what to do about the alliance when we get there. There is still time,” he added.
From the MVA, NCP(SP) MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, and senior Congress leader Jitendra Awhad attended the event.
“Pawar saheb had previously scheduled programmes and so he did not attend. But he did send his representatives, Supriya Tai and Jitendra Awhad. Besides, Pawar sahib had cleared his stand on Hindi imposition earlier. So, no question of him not supporting the rally,” an NCP(SP) leader told ThePrint.
Also Read: In joint rally with cousin Raj, Uddhav Thackeray hints at MNS-Sena (UBT) alliance for BMC polls
Congress’ dilemma
Being a national party, the Congress was trapped in a dilemma. While it believed that the ‘Marathi manoos’ plank could work in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), it also knew the issue wouldn’t resonate with voters outside the area.
Moreover, although it didn’t want to antagonise Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray’s anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stand made the Congress cautious.
Raj Thackeray has been vocal about the loudspeakers outside mosques and demanded their removal. MNS workers have often beaten poor migrants and workers for not knowing Marathi.
“We are a pan-India party. While Uddhav Thackeray is looking at Mumbai and BMC polls at the moment, we have to also go beyond and think about the Hindi heartland. We can’t be seen as standing shoulder to shoulder with Raj Thackeray, who is known for his anti-Hindi stand as well as his anti-Muslim stand,” said another Congress leader.
Many Congress leaders feel that if Uddhav aligns with Raj for the civic body polls, they should fight separately. Besides, the second leader pointed to past friction over seat-sharing when the Congress aligned with the Shiv Sena (UBT), especially during assembly polls, forcing it to cede a lot of space to the regional party.
“We have our base in Mumbai. If we align with Sena (UBT), our vote bank (minority) shifts to UBT, but their Hindutva vote bank doesn’t come to us,” the leader said.
The Congress’s fortunes have been dwindling in the BMC polls in recent years, with its numbers falling drastically to just 31 out of 227 seats in 2017 from 76 in 2007. Earlier, its seats fell to 52 in 2012.
“However, the communication was not very clear from the top. Our Mumbai Congress president Varsha tai congratulated both Thackerays publicly by way of a tweet. But then none of our leaders attended. It was confusing,” said a Congress functionary who attended the event.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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