Amit Shah to meet Uddhav Thackeray

In the backdrop of the Presidential elections,  BJP president Amit Shah would meet Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday.

Shah arrives in Mumbai on Friday on a three-day visit during which he would meet senior leaders of the party and also various sections of the society.

The Amit Shah-Uddhav Thackeray meeting is scheduled for Sunday at Matoshree, sources in both the party said.

However, when asked about the meeting, Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member, said: "You must not read politics into it....the chiefs of two parties are meeting...when Uddhav ji visited New Delhi, during that time also he had met Amit Shah."

The support of the Shiv Sena, the oldest ally of the BJP would be key to the NDA for winning the Presidential elections.

Going against the NDA view, the Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray had supported Congress nominees - Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential elections in 2002 and 2012.  While Patil got the support on the ground that she was a Maharashtrian, Mukherjee had personal relations with the Thackeray family.

The Sena with 18 MPs and 63 MLAs has 25,893 votes in the electoral college. From Maharashtra, the support of an MP translates to 708 votes, and an MLA’s vote translates to 175 votes.

On Wednesday evening, senior BJP leader and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, who is a close confidante of Shah, met Thackeray, to apprise him of the loan waiver announced by the government and its implementation plan.