Nagpur: The Congress has finally announced that it would be launching its Lok Sabha election campaign along with NCP and some allies like Jogendra Kawade on February 20 at a public rally in Nanded. The announcement came in the afternoon just after news trickled in since Monday morning that BJP president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray were to declare pre-poll alliance and seat sharing details by evening.The Congress panic was evident as its first press release issued at 1.49pm announced that on ‘March 20’ a joint opposition rally in Nanded would be held to launch the Lok Sabha election campaign. By 2.02pm, a correction was issued that the rally was on February 20 and not March. The Congress release said NCP stalwarts led by Sharad Pawar and top Congress leaders led by AICC in-charge of state Mallikarjun Kharge will be present at the rally to be held in state Congress president Ashok Chavan’s backyard.In the 2014 elections, Nanded and Hingoli were the only two seats that the Congress could win while the NCP failed to even open the account, crushed by the Narendra Modi wave. Having realized the hard way in state Assembly elections in October 2104 that the two parties have no future if they fight separately, Congress and NCP have renewed the ties.Though till date no other big non-BJP party has come to join them, the so-called ‘Mahagatbandhan’ of two is hoping a big sweep defeating BJP in 2019. The initial hopes of roping in Mayawati-led BSP or even the Ambedkar-led Vanchit Aghadi have disappeared.After Nanded, the Cong-NCP campaign will move further with NCP leader Dhananjay Munde offering to host a rally in his home turf of Parli on February 23. Congress sources also talk of a tentative plan of party president Rahul Gandhi likely to visit state on March 1 to address a rally at Dhule.The BJP has already stolen a march with Modi addressing two huge rallies in the state last Saturday, at Pandharkawda in the morning and Dhule in the afternoon. That the Congress is slow to take off is also clear as there is no plan yet announced for Vidarbha, once its citadel but now totally dominated by the BJP-Sena.

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