Bouquet after brickbat as Sonu Sood meets Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday lauded actor Sonu Sood's initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers.

The actor met Thackeray at the latter's residence Matoshree in suburban Mumbai in the night.

The meeting came on a day the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena launched a scathing attack on Sonu saying he was "enacting a political script written by BJP".

Sena MP Sanjay Raut had wondered whether the BJP propped up the Bollywood actor to "offer help" to migrant workers from North India stranded in Maharashtra amidst the lockdown, with the political motive to show the Uddhav Thackeray government in poor light.

In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Sunday, Raut questioned the sudden rise of "Mahatma" Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown.

Raut also referred to a "sting operation" against Sood ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying he had agreed to promote the BJP-led government at various platforms through his official social media accounts.