Cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray held a closed door meeting for almost 45 minutes on Thursday morning after the former went to the latter’s residence at Shivteertha at Dadar in Mumbai. None of the senior party leaders were present for the private meeting, though Uddhav Thackeray called his nephew and Shiv Sena UBT MLA Varun Sardesai for some time.
“Uddhav saaheb arrived at around 11.30 am. The meeting lasted for not more than 45 minutes. Nobody else was present during the meet. Uddhav Saaheb called for Varun Sardesai (sitting MLA from Mumbai, and Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew) later. But he too was not a part of the meeting though,” a leader told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.
The meeting comes amid speculations of an alliance between the cousins for the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra, but also at a time when the Congress has expressed strong objections to the likely inclusion of MNS in the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Refuting speculations about the likelihood of discussion on seat sharing understanding, a senior leader from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena said, “Our talks are still at preliminary stages. The local leaders at several places will need to have a few more rounds of talks with each other to get a clearer picture.” A Shiv Sena UBT leader who is a part of the core team of the party for Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region area, said he was not aware of any seat distribution discussion.
