Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will address a rally at Ratnagiri district’s Khed, today. It will be his first rally after the Election Commission of India recognised the faction led by him as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and allotted it the ‘bow and arrow’ poll symbol.Khed Taluka in the coastal district is the home turf of senior Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam, who has switched loyalties to the Shinde-led faction, and the Konkan belt is considered to be the strong belt of undivided Shiv Sena. Notably, the rally will be held at the same venue where Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, whose government was toppled by Shinde last June, had addressed a public gathering a fortnight ago.
Addressing his first public rally at Khed after losing the Shiv Sena name and symbol, Uddhav Thackeray had on March 5 said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the most corrupt party in the country and all opportunists are joining it to save themselves from corruption cases. Meanwhile, buoyed by the success of the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s candidate in the recently-held Kasba Peth assembly bypoll in Pune city, the Opposition alliance of NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), and Congress has decided to hold joint rallies across the state beginning April 2.MVA candidate Ravindra Dhangekar had defeated BJP’s Hemant Rasne in that bypoll.“The first MVA rally will be held in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, formerly Aurangabad. Another rally will be held in Mumbai on May 1. Similar rallies will be organised in Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Amravati and Kolhapur cities. The last rally will be in Kolhapur on May 28,” MVA leaders said. These joint rallies will strengthen the meeting of minds of workers of the three parties at the grassroots, they said.