NCP President Sharad Pawar on Thursday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at the latter's official residence - Varsha - in Mumbai. While the details of the meeting are yet to come, Pawar's visit to Varsha assumes significance as this is the first meeting between two leaders after the split in Shiv Sena.
In a tweet, Pawar said he met the chief minister to invite the latter to the 75th Foundation Day of the Maratha Mandir organisation. Pawar is the president of the Mumbai-based Maratha Mandir. The NCP supremo said he held a discussion with Shinde to organise a meeting to address the issues faced by actors and people associated with the Marathi film industry and theatres.
Pawar's NCP is an alliance with Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and Congress. However, this meeting may spark speculation of a possible rift in the MVA alliance. Notably, the meeting happened at a time when former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is abroad on a holiday. Thackeray is expected to return to Mumbai after the first week of June.
Earlier, reports emerged that NCP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Ajit Pawar may join the BJP. However, Pawar rejected the reports saying he would continue with the NCP.
The meeting also comes just days after Saamna, the mouthpiece of Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, claimed that at least 22 MLAs and nine Lok Sabha MPs of Eknath Shinde-led Sena were upset with the BJP and wanted to leave the party.
Saamna claimed that Shinde-led Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar had openly expressed displeasure over the behaviour of the BJP. "We are 13 MPs and are now part of the NDA and expect the issues related to our constituencies to be resolved on a priority basis. But we don't see that happening," Kirtikar said.
Kirtikar, the MP from Mumbai, said, "We are part of the NDA...So our work should be carried out accordingly, and (NDA) constituents should get a (suitable) status. We think we are being given step-motherly treatment."
Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar have been invited to the opposition meeting in Patna under the chairmanship of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Thursday. "Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has invited all the big leaders who are not with BJP and all the patriotic parties who want change in 2024, to Patna on June 12. Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar have also been invited. We are thinking of going to Patna," Sanjay Raut said.
Nitish Kumar, who has been trying to stitch an alliance ahead of the next Lok Sabha election, had recently met Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai.
Former Bihar Deputy CM and BJP MP Sushil Modi today took a swipe at Nitish Kumar, saying his efforts are merely aimed at keeping him in headlines as the balloon of their unity exercise has already been punctured. Kumar, he said, may organise any number of meetings of opposition parties, but it is clear that his unity exercise is not working on the ground.
Modi noted that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got the lone Congress MLA in the state inducted into her party recently and was accused by Jairam Ramesh of being a B-team of the BJP. The Congress has been asked by its Punjab and Delhi leaders to have no truck with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he added, pointing out that the main opposition party and the BSP also ruled out any support to the Samajwadi Party in the recent MLC polls in Uttar Pradesh.
"The balloon of opposition units efforts has been punctured by the likes of Banerjee and (Congress president) Mallikarjun Kharge. Kumar may keep trying as much as he can, it is clear that the opposition unity is impractical. He had long been out of headlines and now he is doing all this to remain in media," Modi told PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)