Mumbai: While it appears that Congress rebel Narayan Rane’s candidature for the December 7 Legislative Council bypoll is unlikely, the Opposition has agreed to jointly contest the election.
A meeting of senior Congress and NCP leaders was held on Tuesday to discuss strategy to corner the State government in the winter session of the Legislative Assembly. Both parties have decided to not take out independent protest marches against the government, as planned earlier, and join hands for a protest on December 12 in Nagpur against the government’s policies.
A senior NCP leader said his party has agreed to support the Congress as the seat was with the latter when Mr. Rane was a party member, and was vacated when he resigned. “During the meeting on the monsoon session, Ajit Pawar proposed that they contest the bypoll together,” he said.
The possibility of getting the Shiv Sena on board was also discussed in Tuesday’s meeting. “[The Sena] too faces the possibility of MLAs switching over to the BJP. If Sena MLAs change sides, and Assembly elections look likely, the Sena would want our support against the BJP. We expect them to co-operate with us for the December 7 bypoll, as they aren’t happy with the BJP government,” he added.
Earlier, it was rumoured that the BJP would field Mr. Rane in the bypoll. However, the possibility of Sena helping the Congress-NCP candidate forced the BJP to change its approach. The party doesn’t want to be on the losing side, especially a day before the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections, and has decided to not take risks. Meanwhile, the Congress and NCP will be taking out a joint rally against the BJP-led State government on December 12 to protest the poor implementation of the loan waiver scheme, allegations against the CM office and GST, among other issues .
