Kharge's clarion call to oust Maharashtra's BJP-backed MahaYuti

Palghar (Maharashtra) : In a final appeal, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge issued a clarion call to the people of Maharashtra to throw out the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed MahaYuti ‘khokhe’ government in the state, here on Monday.

Addressing a huge rally in Vasai town here, he took a swipe at the MahaYuti, saying “50 khokhe (slang for crore rupees), Ekdum Okay” - referring to the (undivided) Shiv Sena split with a faction led by Eknath Shinde walking out in June 2022 to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi of former CM Uddhav Thackeray.

Shinde, backed by the BJP later became the CM along with Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy CM, and a year later in July 2023, even the (undivided) Nationalist Congress Party broke up with Ajit Pawar joining the MahaYuti as a second Deputy CM.

Urging the people to vote out the MahaYuti regime, Kharge cited a series of unfulfilled promises, pursuing poor economic policies and creating huge distress among all sections of society, while training guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Modi never waived off the small debts of the poor farmers but he has written off all the big bank loans of his rich friends. If the helpless farmers are unable to repay, the banks seize and auction off their farmlands, but when it comes to the wealthy, the PM waives off Rs 16 lakh crore,” thundered Kharge.

Targeting the PM’s slogan of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikaas’, the Congress chief reiterated that actually he has only engaged in doing ‘satyanaash’ (destruction) for all the people in the country.

Kharge listed the failed promises of creating two crore jobs every year, bringing back all the black money stashed abroad and distributing Rs 15 lakhs into every Indian’s bank accounts, doubling the income of farmers but actually they are now deprived of even the minimum support prices, free gas cylinders which never came, etc.

“The PM has all the time to visit foreign countries, but he has never gone to Manipur which has been raging for the past one-and-half years. The BJP is indulging in disruptive politics through contentious slogans like ‘batenge toh katenge’, ‘ek hain toh safe hain’, ‘vote-jihad’, etc. But it is actually the BJP and Modi who are dividing the people for their politics,” roared Kharge.

He brought forth the PM’s pet projects like the track record of the ambitious bullet train which has been languishing for 11 years, a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj the PM inaugurated in Sindhudurg which crashed in barely eight months, leakages in Parliament and the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya, among others.

Invoking the icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Kharge said the MVA is committed to following their ideals and unite the society fragments on caste and religion lines.

Here he brought up the MVA’s Manifesto – ‘Maharashtranama,’ inspired by the Chhatrapati -- which aims at the welfare of all sections of the people including the poor, women, unemployed youth, farmers, the senior citizens and the ill with a slew of benefits awaiting them.

This was the closing rally of the Congress – and 9th addressed by Kharge -- as campaigning ended this evening for the November 20 state Assembly elections.