Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Top leaders of the opposition Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Republican Party of India (RPI) will go on a statewide tour from Friday to prepare party workers, especially in Dalit strongholds, for their June 9 joint rally against the Maharashtra government.
BJP state general secretary and legislator Vinod Tawade said besides his party leader Gopinath Munde, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and RPI chief Ramdas Athawale would also take part in rallies in different cities.
"Starting with Aurangabad (Friday), the trio will travel to Pune (Saturday), Mumbai (May 30), Nashik (June 1) and Nagpur (June 2). All these places are major Dalit strongholds and our leaders would enlighten their respective party workers on the emerging new three-party alliance," Tawade told IANS.
After these workers' rallies, the three parties shall co-operate for the June 9 rally in Mumbai, called 'Chale Jao' (Get Out, or Quit Office), directed against the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine.
The June 9 rally will highlight the issues of corruption, inflation and alleged atrocities against Dalits and culminate in a procession from Azad Maidan to Mantralaya in south Mumbai.
Athawale said last fortnight that over a million people shall be mobilized for the June 9 show of might against the state government.
Tawade said after completing the regional headquarters of the three parties in Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and Nagpur, state-level leaders will take over and conduct similar rallies at the district levels over the next few months.
Incidentally, the RPI is expected to take its final decision on joining the SS-BJP combine by October, its leader Athawale said in Mumbai last fortnight.
Tawade feels in view of the new emerging political force in state politics, the ruling Congress-NCP have already started sinking their differences and are attempting to put up a united front, as evident in the stand of both parties on different issues in recent weeks.
The leaders of the Sena-BJP-RPI claim their alliance is not for any election, including the early 2012 civic polls in Mumbai and other major cities, but to expose the failure of the government on various counts.