Mumbai: Days after Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray reportedly questioned Congress’s decision to hold separate protests against EC and suggested that all opposition parties instead organise a joint protest under the INDIA banner, MVA, the opposition bloc in the state, tried to put up a united front at Sunday’s protest but many top netas were conspicuous by their absence.While Congress’s Balasaheb Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar and NCP (SP)’s Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad and Shashikant Shinde attended the protest, Congress’s state chief Harshwardhan Sapkal and city chief Varsha Gaikwad skipped it, as did NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, party MP Supriya Sule and MLA Rohit Pawar. Jayant Prabhakar Patil of Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) was present. A political observer questioned MVA’s “token representation”.Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS netas had claimed that they had reached out to all parties and that Uddhav and Raj had spoken to many senior MVA functionaries requesting their participation at Sunday’s rally.Congress held its protests seeking CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s ouster last week in Mumbai and across the state.
