Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of his party, the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party was strong, and there were no differences between the three allies.
The opposition was scared of the alliance's growing popularity and that was why it was spreading rumours about fissures within the MVA, he told reporters in Mumbai.
"Rallies of the MVA are being held across the state. After the successful rally at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, another public meeting is being held in Nagpur on April 16, after which rallies will be held in Mumbai and other places," Patole said.
The Congress leader had earlier criticized the NCP for aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Agriculture Produce Market Committee elections. His senior party colleague Prithviraj Chavan had also targeted the NCP recently.
The Congress leader also said there was no need to draw any speculative inferences regarding Tuesday's meeting between NCP president Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
"Leaders of the MVA meet each other regularly. There is harmony in the Maha Vikas Aghadi. We hold discussions with leaders of all the parties. The opposition is afraid that the Maha Vikas Aghadi is strong, that is why the BJP is trying to stop us from holding a public meeting in Nagpur," he claimed.
But the alliance will certainly hold rallies in Nagpur, Amravati, Pune, Kolhapur, Nashik, and Mumbai as planned, Patole said.
To a question about Congress general secretary K C Venugopal's scheduled visit to Mumbai, Patole said he did not know the former's official program in the city yet.
Asked if Venugopal would be meeting Shiv Sena (UBT), chief Uddhav Thackeray, Patole asked what was wrong if he did.
