Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Udhav Thackeray met Nationalist Congress Party (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Monday amid reports of differences among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies following the Maharashtra assembly elections.
The meeting that lasted for an hour took place at Pawar’s residence at Silver Oak in south Mumbai. It’s not immediately known what transpired at the meeting.
Cracks emerged in the MVA after it suffered a humiliating defeat in the assembly elections, winning just 46 seats in the 288-member house.
Last week, the Shiv Sena (UBT) announced that it would go solo in the upcoming elections to the various local bodies. Party leader Sanjay Raut said the INDIA bloc and Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances were for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
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Raut hit out at the Congress—the third constituent of the MVA—for indulging in a blame game over the alliance’s defeat in the state assembly and said those who didn’t believe in consensus and compromise had no right to be in an alliance.
On January 13, Raut met Pawar at the latter’s residence and, according to reports, the meeting focused on the future of the MVA and the upcoming municipal, zilla parishad and nagar parishad elections in the state.
Pawar had recently said he would call a meeting of the combine's three constituents to discuss contesting the upcoming local body elections. He, however, also maintained that the alliance is only for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, not for the local body polls.
