'For us friendship is family': Uddhav Thackeray meets Congress's KC Venugopal over opposition unity

They also discussed the alleged misuse of central probe agencies by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to target opposition leaders.

"I came here to meet Uddhav ji and to convey the message of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The message is very clear - in the current political situation in India and Maharashtra, Uddhav ji is fighting against anti-democratic forces," Venugopal told reporters after the meeting.

"Democracy has been completely sabotaged by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, we have seen that. The ED and CBI are being used to target Uddhav ji's and other parties," he said.

Venugopal called for a "broader opposition unity", which is the reason for Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi's meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar last week.

The two Bihar leaders had also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a witness in the Delhi liquor policy case.

"The opposition will together fight the dictatorship of Narendra Modi. There may be differences in opinion. The Congress, Sena and NCP have their own ideology, but the country is facing bigger issues which we never faced. That's why we discussed all these issues and we are all in agreement that we all have to get together and fight these people," Venugopal said.

Gandhi will meet Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai sometime, and the Sena chief will also visit Delhi soon, the Congress General Secretary said.

Agreeing with the visiting Congress leader, Thackeray said everyone has their own ideology; however, their battle is to save democracy.

"Hum jab dosti nibhate hai, wo dosti nahi, rishta hota hai (for us, friendship is family)," Thackeray told reporters.

"We supported the BJP for 25 years, but they never really understood who is a friend and who is an enemy," he added.

The BJP often takes digs at the opposition's attempt to unite when there are disagreements and even outright hostility between some of them.