BJP president Amit Shah met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray here on Wednesday.
Mr. Shah, accompanied by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, met Mr. Thackeray at the latter’s residence Matoshree.
The BJP said the meeting is in connection with its Sampark for Samarthan (contact for support) campaign being led by Mr. Shah in the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
However, the meeting is seen to be significant as the BJP and the Shiv Sena have been bickering despite being allies at the Central and State level.
The two allies contested the May 28 bypoll to the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra separately and engaged in a bitter campaign against each other.
The Shiv Sena has particularly been upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has repeatedly attacked him.
After the defeat in the Palghar bypoll at the hands of the BJP, the Shiv Sena labelled the ally as its “biggest political enemy.”
Even on Tuesday, the Sena questioned the “need” for the meeting between Mr. Shah and Mr. Thackeray “after a gap of four years” (since the Modi government was formed).
The Shiv Sena has also already declared that it will go it alone in the 2019 general elections. The two parties were allies for over two-and-half decades before they severed ties ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls, only to join hands later to form the government under the leadership of Mr. Fadnavis in the State.
In Wednesday’s editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna , the Shiv Sena questioned the BJP’s outreach programme after suffering defeat in bypolls in various States. The editorial maintained that the Sena will fight all the upcoming elections alone. “The PM is touring the world and Amit Shah is going around the country as part of their ‘sampark’ programme. Shah will be meeting NDA allies. However, what exactly will he do? Why is he meeting at this juncture when the BJP has suffered defeat in bypolls,” the Sena asked.
