Top INDIA bloc leaders to attend ‘Ulgulan’ rally
RANCHI: Top INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, and Uddhav Thackeray, could attend the ‘Ulgulan’ rally to be hosted by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Ranchi on April 21, leaders aware of the development said.
In a first such meeting ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, senior leaders from Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) met Kalpana Soren, JMM leader and wife of former CM Hemant Soren, at her residence and deliberated over preparations for the proposed rally, the people close to the developments said.
The meeting was attended by Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, state president Rajesh Thakur, RJD leader and state labour minister Satyanand Bhokta, CPI-ML legislator Binod Singh, who is also the INDIA bloc’s candidate for Koderma Lok Sabha.
“All senior leaders of the alliance, be it from Patna, Delhi, or Maharashtra, would attend the rally, which would be led and hosted by JMM. The INDIA bloc stands united, and we will hold a historic rally on April 21,” said Binod Pandey, JMM general secretary, who was present at the meeting.
“We are organising the Ulgulan Maharally to highlight the injustice meted out to Hemant Soren and for the protection of democracy,” Pandey added.
RJD general secretary Kailash Yadav said Tejashwi Yadav has consented to attend the rally. A senior Jharkhand RJD leader on Sunday said that the party’s national president Lalu Prasad will take part in the mega rally of the opposition INDIA bloc scheduled on April 21, if his health condition permits. “The programme of the former deputy CM has been finalised. There are chances that even our national president, Lalu Prasad, could also attend the rally. However, the final decision is still to be finalised. All alliance partners have joined hands to make this rally a success with a target of five lakh attendance,” said Yadav, who was also present at the meeting with Kalpana Soren.
While the ruling alliance is claiming to make the rally a grand success, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a swipe, saying it would be a congregation of the corrupt.
“They recently did a rally in New Delhi, where they claimed that five million people would attend the rally. The fact remains that people can see through the congregation of the corrupt who have been rejected by people,” said Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.