Former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray meets Sharad Pawar amid talk of rift in MVA

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray met NCP president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday evening at the latter's Silver Oak residence in South Mumbai.
The meeting, which lasted over an hour, came amid differences among the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners Congress, NCP and Sena (UBT) over the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani Group. Pawar has opposed the demand for a JPC.
Sena (UBT) sources said both Pawar and Uddhav agreed that differences of opinion on contentious issues like the JPC probe or Rahul Gandhi's comments on Veer Savarkar must not affect MVA's unity as the 'Vajramuth' joint rallies of the MVA were getting a good response from the public. It was agreed that the rallies must continue ahead of local body polls and in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and NCP MP Supriya Sule were part of the meeting. However, no Congress leader was present.
Sena (UBT) sources said apart from the Adani issue, there was a discussion on a range of political issues like fighting the upcoming polls together as MVA, the pending decision of the Supreme Court on disqualification of 16 rebel Sena MLAs including CM Eknath Shinde and planning for the Lok Sabha elections. "Despite some difference of opinion between Congress and NCP, the MVA's joint rallies will continue as planned. Once local body polls are announced, they will also be fought under the MVA banner. Several issues were said to be discussed, but there was consensus that MVA can't be allowed to get diluted or rifts must not be created," a Sena (UBT) functionary said.
The Sena (UBT) and NCP have also had different views on the controversy over PM Narendra Modi's degree. While Raut had said Modi's 'entire political science' degree should be put up at the grand entrance to the new Parliament building, NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that it was not right to question the degrees of ministers.
Former CM Prithviraj Chavan of Congress had on Monday alleged PM Modi has found "a novel way" to avoid a JPC as "he has chosen a prominent opposition member to halt the probe into the Adani scam." Uddhav had on Monday said there should be a probe into the Adani matter.