In the days before the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra arrived in Maharashtra, the media and political circles in the state were abuzz with a guessing game: will Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackrey and Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar walk with Rahul Gandhi and when?
The curiosity was understandable. Their coming together would signal whether the Maha Vikas Aghadi was still a political force to reckon with. MVA is the coalition of the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena that was thrown out of power after Eknath Shinde, now the chief minister, split the Sena and allied with the BJP five months ago. The absence of Thackeray and Pawar would convey as much significance.
