Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray met Maharashtra’s former deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar here on Wednesday afternoon, thus triggering intense speculation about the possibility of the MNS being included in the “mahaghatbandhan” in the State.
A day after Pawar made a strong case for MNS’ inclusion in the “mahaghatbandhan” to ensure against the division of Opposition votes in the Lok Sabha polls in the State, Raj met Ajitdada — as junior Pawar is known in the State — secretly at the Mumbai residence of the latter’s friend Vivek Jadhav.
The meeting, which had been under wraps but became known late in the evening, lasted for ninety minutes.
Over the past several months, Raj had met NCP chief Sharad Pawar on at least three occasions in the recent past. On February 21 last year, Raj had interviewed Pawar at a public function organised in Pune by Jagtik Marathi Academy.
Subsequently in the last week of October last year, Raj and Pawar hd travelled together in a commercial flight to Mumbai. While Pawar was in Aurangabad to attend a felicitation ceremony of a former legislator, Raj was returning from his week-long Vidarbha tour.
The photograph of Pawar and Raj, sitting next to each other in a Mumbai-bound flight having hearty conversation, had sparked speculation in the media circles about the possibility of an electoral tie-up between the NCP and MNS.
On January 6 this year, Raj called on Sr Pawar to invite the former for his son Amit’s marriage with fashioner designer Mitali Borude scheduled for January 27.
Later on January 27, Sr Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule, nephew, former deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his family members attended Amit Thackeray’s wedding.
Informed sources in both NCP and MNS have confirmed that Raj is lobbying for his party being given north-east Mumbai seat and he wants this seat from the NCP quota. He has also reportedly shown keenness in joining the “mahaghatbandhan” in Maharashtra.
On its part, the NCP has already gone record saying that the Congress and NCP have already reached informal seat sharing arrangement for a majority of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
Given that Raj has consistently been a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA Government for the last years now, the Congress and NCP may not be averse to taking the MNS into the “mahaghatbandhan”.
However, what is surprising is that Ajitdada has taken the initiative of bringing the MNS into the “mahaghatbandhan” fold, despite the fact that Raj has been his vociferous critic for several years now.
