Rahul Gandhi To Visit Maharashtra On Shiv Sena's Invite, Likely To Meet CM Thackeray At 'Matoshree'

Sources said Gandhi may visit Maharashtra after the Monsoon Session of Parliament during which he is expected to hold talks with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (File Photo)

New Delhi: As the opposition unites to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Shiv Sena has invited Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to Maharashtra.

Sources close to ABP News said Gandhi may visit Maharashtra after the Monsoon Session of Parliament during which he is expected to hold talks with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Sources added he will also visit ‘Matoshree’, the residence of the Shiv Sena supremo.

READ: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar Meets Amit Shah Hours After Daughter Attended Rahul Gandhi's Breakfast Meeting

This comes as Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has met the Congress leader twice over the last few days and it is being assumed that Gandhi has during these interactions been extended an invitation to visit Maharashtra.

If Gandhi visits ‘Maharashtra’ then this will be witnessed as a big bipolar change in the country’s national politics.  

A Shiv Sena leader has, however, said the Congress leader’s later grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi had visited ‘Matoshree’ earlier, adding this should not be seen from a different perspective.

The news of Shiv Sena’s invitation to Gandhi comes at a time when the three coalition partners in Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi government are at loggerheads.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Nana Patole has been continuously talking about contesting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections alone.

Moreover, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has met the top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top leadership twice in the last 17 days. Pawar met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 3, while he had Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier on July 27. Although the reason behind both meetings was told differently, but nothing can be predicted in politics as even merger of the reverse takes place at times.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister had recently met Prime Minister Modi with few of his ministerial colleagues. He had also met the Prime Minister alone.

Many speculations were then made and sources in the Shiv Sena also did not rule out any possibility in future.

But now the Shiv Sena seems to be increasing the tussle with the Congress and the politics of Maharashtra can show and erase many possibilities in the coming times, especially before the BMC elections.

(With inputs from Vikas Singh Bhadauria)