A rumoured meeting between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday night and a scheduled State cabinet meeting on Friday afternoon have led to speculations over dissolution of the Assembly in favour of simultaneous polls with Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

Though Mr. Fadnavis, who was in Nagpur on Thursday afternoon, told reporters that no such move is planned, the timing of the cabinet meeting has caused eyebrows to be raised in the political and administrative circles as the cabinet met this week on Tuesday and gave assent to 22 decisions, anticipating it to be the last before announcement of general polls.

A State cabinet has to pass a resolution to dissolve the Assembly which is then be submitted to the Governor. The meeting between Mr. Fadnavis and Mr. Thackeray is also adding to the suspense. Neither BJP nor Sena leaders chose to speak openly, with a BJP leader admitting that the decision will be taken by the top leadership, with State unit leadership hardly being aware of it.

Meanwhile, Opposition parties said they were ready for any such move. “We are ready for anything. If the government wants to go for Assembly polls along with Lok Sabha then it is good for the State as it will not have to suffer under the corrupt BJP government for six more months,” said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik.

NCP MP Supriya Sule said no official word has been received and all talks are mere speculations. “We are ready for anything,” she said.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant too said that if government decides to dissolve the Assembly, then it would be nothing but a betrayal with the people of the state. “The people of Maharashtra taught a lesson to the BJP-Sena in 1999 when it decided to go for polls six months earlier, and it will again do the same. Congress is well-prepared to face simultaneous polls,” said Mr. Sawant.

In 1999, the then Shiv Sena-BJP government in the State had dissolved the Assembly six months before completion of its tenure. The move however, did not bring good news for the saffron alliance as it failed to secure majority mark and Congress-NCP joined hands to form the coalition government which continued for next 15 years.