Mumbai, Apr 29 (PTI) NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s official residence `Varsha’ here and discussed recent political developments in the state, sources said.
The two allies discussed, among other things, the controversy involving the Rana couple and Raj Thackeray’s demand of removal of loudspeakers from mosques, said a Shiv Sena leader.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray, an estranged cousin of Uddhv Thackeray, demanded earlier this month that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state remove loudspeakers on mosques by May 3, and threatened to play the Hanuman Chalisa at louder volumes in front of mosques if the demand was not met.
Subsequently, independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana and her husband and independent MLA Ravi Rana announced that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa in front of Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence `Matoshree’ here.
They later dropped the plan, but were arrested for alleged sedition and `promoting enmity between different groups’.
“Pawar and CM Thackeray discussed Raj Thackeray’s demand, as it can create a law and order situation in some parts of the state including Mumbai. Despite several emissaries being sent to him, Raj is not willing to listen to anyone,” said the Sena leader.
Sena leaders have also alleged that Raj Thackeray is acting at the BJP’s behest.
The meeting between Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray also came against the backdrop of BJP leader Ashish Shelar’s claim that the BJP was about to join hands with the NCP in 2017 but the latter demanded that it first sever the ties with the Shiv Sena, then a BJP ally.
The Sena leadership is reportedly upset that the NCP did not refute the claim vehemently, sources said. PTI ND KRK KRK
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Source: The Print
