CONG TO HOLD 50 PUBLIC MEETS

The Congress has announced 50 public meetings over the next four weeks in the state. The party has sought public rallies of party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

The party will launch its phase of pre-election public meeting, called Jan Sangharsh meetings,

development minister were there. It was not a political function,” he said. In the six Assembly constituencies in Beed district, Kshirsagar is the only NCP MLA, while the rest five are from the BJP. If Kshirsagar joins the BJP, the district will become a BJP bastion.

Meanwhile, Patil said he joined the BJP as he was upset with the Congress’ decision to tie up with the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “How can you tie up with your political rival? There is a lot of bad blood from Aurangabad on Thursday. It will be followed by three meetings in Aurangabad and Pune in two days. The party aims to cover all 26 Lok Sabha constituencies . “The governments have failed on all fronts. We will expose them,” said Ashok Chavan, state Congress chief.

between us in the region. My workers will not work with PWP. Moreover, the BJP’S work in the area has been good,” he said.

A former MLA from Pen constituency, Patil had lost to PWP candidate in the 2014 polls. The BJP has little presence in Konkan and by poaching Patil, they can put up a good candidate from the constituency in the Assembly polls.

“We will continue to take in winnable candidates and many more sitting legislators will make a beeline for the BJP,” said a senior BJP leader.