Congress-NCP-led grand alliance in Maha to hold rally Saturday

Leaders of anti-BJP grand alliance in Maharashtra, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, will Saturday hold their second joint rally at Parli in Beed district ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Besides the NCP president, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, People's Republican Party leader Jogendra Kawade and PWP's Jayant Patil will attended the rally at Parli, a town around 500km from here in the Marathwada region.

Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil, its leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Ajit Pawar and others will also take part in the public meeting, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of the NCP said in a statement.

The grand alliance ('maha aghadi'), a Congress-NCP-led bloc of anti-BJP parties in the state, had held their first joint rally on February 20 in Nanded, Chavan's home turf.

Saturday's rally will also mark culmination of the 'Parivartan Yatra' launched by the NCP.

The yatra is a public outreach programme the party had launched in January from Raigad to flag "failures" of the BJP- led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Munde, who hails from Beed, urged people to attend the rally in large number.

Hit by the Narendra Modi 'wave' in the 2014 general polls, the Congress and the NCP had recorded their respective lowest Lok Sabha tallies in the state.

The Congress could bag only two seats, while the NCP managed to clinch victory in four constituencies. The NCP won the Bhandara-Gondia by-election in June last year, taking its tally to five.

On the other hand, the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena had emerged victorious in 23 and 18 Parliamentary seats, respectively, in the state, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the second hightest after Uttar Pradesh (80).