Amid Pawar-Shah meeting, Shiv Sena says MVA safe

Asked about it, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that ‘not every meeting can be made public'

Amid reports of a secret meeting between NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Union Home Minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah and resultant speculations, the Shiv Sena and NCP on Monday yet again asserted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is absolutely safe.

The Shiv Sena and NCP vehemently denied that any Pawar-Shah parlays took place, however, the BJP kept the people guessing.

The Maharashtra Congress, however, has not commented on the issue.

“The MVA has been formed by Pawar saheb, there is no reason to think about unnecessary things,” NCP’s general secretary Praful Patel told reporters in Kochi.

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According to him, the MVA government is “absolutely safe” and is working with 100 per cent commitment.

Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, said that there was nothing wrong with the meeting. “Pawar saheb is a senior leader and he can meet the Union Home Minister… I can also meet him,” he said.

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“There is nothing called a secret meeting in politics…if it was secret how you came to know?” asked Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, a close aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

According to him, the MVA government is “absolutely safe” and is working with 100 per cent commitment.

Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, said that there is nothing wrong with the meeting. “Pawar saheb is a senior leader and he can meet the Union Home Minister… I can also meet,” he said.

“The Home Minister said that ‘not every meeting can be made public’, however, if I recall he had spoken about what has happened behind the closed door,” Raut said in an indirect reference to the Shah-Thackeray meeting in February 2019 at Matoshree.

Also Read | 'Such things need not be made public': Amit Shah on speculations over meeting Sharad Pawar

Raut’s statement comes a day after he met Thackeray. Asked about the meeting, he said, “The Chief Minister is the Shiv Sena President… He is our supreme leader and when we meet our leader, we discuss state and national politics, issues of importance."

Taking a dig at Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of BJP, Raut said, “He should also think about Maharashtra.. He sees everything in Delhi… He looks at the Centre, he meets Home Secretary… The BJP should play the Holi of love for the next three and a half years.”

Meanwhile, state BJP President Chandrakant Patil evaded a direct reply. "All such meetings take place routinely. In Indian culture, politics is on one side, but we all should meet. Of late, such meetings have decreased in Maharashtra, since Pawar and Shah were there (in Ahmedabad), they might have met,” he said.

Asked whether he is okay if the BJP and NCP come together, Patil said whatever decision is taken by the senior leadership of the BJP, it will be accepted as it will always be in the interest of the party.