Opposition’s I.N.D.I.A train pulls into Uddhav Thackeray’s Mumbai

Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar along with leaders of other parties during a press conference on Wednesday ahead of I.N.D.I.A. Alliance’s third conference. Pic/Shadab Khan

The top seeding for Uddhav Thackeray at I.N.D.I.A. Front's third leg of national meetings has more than meets the eye. Thackeray's party was the second largest in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly before it split last year and it seems he still gives the Opposition bloc a ray of hope considering his undying fight with the Sena rebels and the BJP.

Comparison is being drawn between the Thackeray Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP which has also been split but refuses to buy into the division between the uncle and nephew.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a gathering during the inauguration of the Karnataka Government's Gruha Laxmi scheme, in Mysuru, on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

Thackeray's demeanour on Wednesday, the eve of a two-day I.N.D.I.A. Front Conclave was a testimony to his new positioning in the pan-India anti-BJP front. He did most of the talking while taking on the BJP. Even Sharad Pawar handed him the microphone without saying much in the opening speech. He later answered questions directed to him. At one point, Uddhav offered an answer that Pawar didn't offer. "We have many PM candidates. How many does the BJP have?" asked Uddhav in a straight attack on his friend of the past.

Pawar did say that there was no confusion over his stand about Ajit Pawar, who according to him, will perish to the people's wrath in the elections.

Uddhav Thackeray was observed taking the lead at the press conference on Wednesday. Pic/Shadab Khan

Observers have been increasingly feeling that Thackeray could be the Congress's long-time ally in Maharashtra because his latest avatar fits the national party's anti-BJP bill. Thackeray is relying on the sympathy of party loyalists whom he expects to convert into votes in Mumbai and other areas where he holds sway.

The Pawar faction also expects the sympathy factor to work. But many in the MVA see Ajit Pawar as a much stronger ally than Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, as far as their politics is concerned. Here, Thackeray is tipped to score more for himself and for the Opposition bloc, which will want as many Lok Sabha seats as possible from the second-largest state after Uttar Pradesh, said a political observer.