After Adani, MP Sanjay Raut meets Pawar

Hours after industrialist Gautam Adani met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut called on the latter at his residence in the evening on Thursday.

Raut met Pawar at his residence 'Silver Oak' in south Mumbai, but what transpired between the two political leaders was not known. Earlier in the day, Adani called on the former Union minister at his residence and the meeting lasted for nearly two hours. The meeting assumes significance as Pawar two weeks ago had come out in support of the billionaire businessman, who is facing the heat after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, in a report, alleged the Adani group was involved in "stock manipulation and accounting fraud".

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The ports-to-power Indian conglomerate had rubbished the report as a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations” and asserted it was in compliance with all regulatory norms. While the Congress and other Opposition parties are demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani matter, the NCP president has taken a different stand on the issue, saying the industrialist was being targeted. Raut claimed on Sunday Pawar recently told former CM Uddhav Thackeray that his party NCP will never join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even if anyone in the organisation takes an individual decision to do so.

Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar had slammed Raut, without naming him, for the comments made in his weekly column in Marathi daily Saamana, saying was no need for him act as a spokesman of the NCP. Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, had hit back, saying he listens only to Sharad Pawar. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP are constituents of Maharashtra's Opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which also includes the Congress.