NCP chief Sharad Pawar had a meeting with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray here today on a day when the BJP-led NDA got a boost through the victory in Gujarat.
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today held a prolonged meeting in the backdrop of former Sena leader Narayan Rane's recent outbursts against Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
"The two leaders discussed various current important issues," Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said.
Raut, however, declined to divulge the contents of the meeting.
Pawar, an old friend of the Sena chief, was at 'Matoshree', the Thackeray's residence in suburban Bandra, for over one-and-a-half hour, he said.
But political analysts said that the meeting assumes importance as Rane is a 'common enemy' of both Thackeray as well as Pawar.
Rane had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday after openly criticising Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's style of functioning.
After Rane's exit from Shiv Sena, the party which made him Chief Minister in 1999, he joined Congress in July 2005 and was immediately made revenue minister.
Several Rane supporters in Shiv Sena followed his footsteps and quit the party. Some of them were re-elected to the Maharashtra Assembly as Congress candidates, thereby helping the party overtake NCP as far as number of MLAs are concerned.
Rane has since then been harbouring ambitions of being made the Chief Minister again. His recent outburst only highlighted his impatience at Deshmukh for being at the helm of affairs in the state.
Today's meeting between Pawar, whom Rane had criticized in several public meetings in the Maratha strongman's Pune district and Bal Thackeray, who had accused Rane of betraying Sena, is being considered significant in state political circles.
Although Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut declined to comment when asked if Rane issue was discussed in the marathon meeting, Sena sources said the two leaders discussed all current issues of significance.
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