The Congress party and the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), which have been on opposite sides of the political fence, on Saturday dropped hints that they might work together to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra in the 2019 Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.
The rapprochement came after a maiden meeting between the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan and SSS founder Raju Shetti at the latter's residence in the politically important Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra.
"Shetti has already left NDA. I requested him to join the opposition parties who have come together to jointly step up agitation against the state government for its miserable performance at all fronts,'' Chavan told DNA.
"Our political affair committee will soon meet to discuss the Congress party's proposal to work together for the welfare of farmers,'' SSS spokesman Yogesh Pande said.
The meeting comes at a time when the state Congress unit and the SSS have launched separate statewide campaigns highlighting farmers' distress, tardy implementation of crop loan waiver scheme, and the lack of minimum support price for farm produce.
The Congress party's outreach to Shetti is also expected to benefit both sides in the election to Kolhapur and other zila parishads in western Maharashtra, particularly in areas where the BJP has made inroads since coming to power in October 2014.
Shetti, who led the agitation against the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government during 1999 and 2014, recently called off his alliance with the BJP and announced his decision to highlight the neglect of farmers by both the Central and state governments. He has also launched an agitation to press for higher price for sugarcane growers.
On the other hand, the MPCC has of late been conducting rallies across the state against the state and Central governments over the economic slowdown as well as for not doing enough to provide relief to the farmers who are yet to recover from losses incurred due to natural calamities. The party has also been organising internal meetings and public rallies in Vidarbha and other parts of Maharashtra ahead of the two-week long winter session starting December 11 in Nagpur.
