Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde met Raj Thackeray, both had dinner together, political stir increased

Mumbai. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray at his residence in Dadar. This was Shinde’s first visit to Thackeray’s residence ‘Shiv Teerth’ after the state assembly elections last year. The Shiv Sena president was accompanied by party leader and Industry Minister in the Mahayuti government Uday Samant. Sources said that Raj Thackeray’s son Amit and Mumbai MNS President Sandeep Deshpande were also present during Eknath Shinde’s visit.

A Shiv Sena official said that Raj Thackeray had invited Eknath Shinde for dinner. But this meeting is important because Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections are expected to be held this year. These elections are pending for three years. For the last two months, MNS has been trying to restart its movement regarding Marathi language and is demanding that Marathi language should be used everywhere in the state.

It is worth noting that in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, a triangular contest was seen on the Mahim seat between Sada Sarvankar of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Amit Thackeray of MNS and Mahesh Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT). Mahesh Sawant had won here by a close margin. After the election results, there was talk in the political corridors that there was a rift between Raj Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. It was said that Raj Thackeray was angry with Eknath Shinde for not withdrawing his party’s candidate from Mahim seat. But the latest picture has put an end to these speculations.

Will MNS-Shiv Sena come together for BMC elections?
If sources are to be believed, there may be an alliance between Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS for the BMC elections. In the Maharashtra assembly elections, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde performed much better than Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena UBT. After this, the Shinde faction’s claim that it is the real Shiv Sena got further strengthened. Shiv Sena is in power in BMC, but most of the councillors are in the camp of Uddhav faction. In the upcoming elections, Shinde faction will want to prove that the people of Mumbai also consider it the real Shiv Sena.

Setback for Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT?
Shiv Sena is currently part of the BJP-led Mahayuti government. In the previous Mahayuti government, Eknath Shinde was the Chief Minister, in the new government formed after the elections, he had to be content with the post of Deputy Chief Minister and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis became the CM. Now BJP will want to bring Shinde faction’s Shiv Sena to power by keeping itself behind in the BMC elections, so that the disappointment in his camp due to not making Eknath Shinde the CM can be reduced. Both Shiv Sena and MNS have significant influence in the municipal corporation areas of Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. A possible alliance between Shiv Sena and MNS could be a big setback for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction in the state.

Not every meeting has political meaning: Shinde
Behind the scenes, many leaders of both the parties are actively working to facilitate this alliance. However, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde described his meeting with Raj Thackeray as a courtesy visit. Eknath Shinde said, “We used to work together since the time of Balasaheb Thackeray. Due to some reasons, we could not meet for some time. You know what those reasons were. But now we can meet and talk anytime. He also meets me, I come to meet him. It is not right to draw political meaning from every meeting.”