Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday downplayed the meeting between MNS president Raj Thackeray and CM Devendra Fadnavis, saying that maintaining communication is a tradition in the state, reported news agency PTI.
Talking to reporters in Wardha, Pawar said, “Many leaders meet one another as well as with the chief minister, irrespective of whether they are in power or not. Maintaining communication with each other is the tradition of the state. There is no need to give a political angle to this meeting,” reported PTI.
Earlier, Raj Thackeray met Fadnavis at the latter`s official bungalow `Varsha` in south Mumbai, prompting speculation in the state`s political circles.
The meeting came after the first joint contest by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray`s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the BEST Employees` Co-operative Credit Society elections ended in a humiliating defeat on Wednesday. The two parties` joint panel failed to win any of the 21 seats in the polls.
Fadnavis had on Wednesday accused the two parties of politicising the credit society polls around the “Thackeray brand”, reported PTI.
There have been talks of a possible alliance between the Sena (UBT) and the MNS for the forthcoming local body polls in the state, particularly after the Thackeray cousins shared a political stage last month on the issue of Marathi identity and “imposition” of the Hindi language in the state.
In a jolt to the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS, their panel has lost all 21 seats in the election to the BEST Employees Cooperative Credit Society Ltd, a platform where the two parties came together amid a buzz about a pan-Maharashtra alliance.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accused the Sena (UBT)-MNS of politicising the credit society polls around the ¿Thackeray brand¿. The defeat prompted the BJP to mock the “Thackeray brand”, saying it has turned to `zero`.
Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut downplayed the defeat, saying he had no information about the results. “The Thackeray brand can never fail. The credit society election is neither a final exam nor a unit test (for the upcoming local body polls),” Raut said.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Sena (UBT), headed by cousins Raj and Uddhav Thackeray, respectively, came together on one platform to contest the election, seen as a precursor to a possible alliance between the two parties.
Voting was held on Monday for the election to the cooperative credit society linked to the employees of the civic undertaking Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), which runs the city`s ubiquitous red buses.
Counting began on Tuesday and continued till late at night.
The BEST is the transport wing of the BMC, which was controlled by the Bal Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena for over two decades before it went under administrator control a few years ago.
The two parties had formed a panel named `Utkarsh` and fielded 21 candidates for the polls. The Sena (UBT) nominated 18 candidates, the MNS two, while one was from the Association of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes aligned with them.
(With inputs from PTI)
