E-Paper
Thackeray cousins tie-up on cards? MNS leader-Sanjay Raut meeting sparks buzz
Speculation about a possible alliance between estranged Thackeray cousins Raj and Uddhav has been triggered by a meeting between Sanjay Raut and Abhijit Panse.
Amid frequent realignments in Maharashtra politics, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut's meeting with MNS leader Abhijit Panse has triggered speculation about a possible alliance between the estranged Thackeray cousins Raj and Uddhav.
Panse, however, said he met Raut, the executive editor of Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece `Saamana', for personal work.
“I was visiting Raut's residence in Bhandup for personal work. He was going to Saamana office (in central Mumbai), so I went along. It is obvious that a discussion will take place on the recent political developments (during such meetings). But I did not go with any proposal (of alliance)," Panse told reporters.
Raut later said they did not discuss politics.
Asked about the possibility of two Thackeray cousins coming together, Raut said, “This matter is between the two brothers. No household should have a dispute. They are brothers and the relations between the two are long-lasting and go beyond politics."
Once seen as Bal Thackeray's political heir, Raj quit the Shiv Sena in 2005 blaming Uddhav for his exit.
The meeting comes days after Maharashtra Navnirnam Sena workers put up posters in Mumbai urging their party president Raj Thackeray and his rival cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) supremo Uddhav Thackeray to join hands. A poster urging Thackeray cousins to come together was seen on Monday outside a petrol pump at Ram Ganesh Gadkari Chowk in Dadar West.
“Politics of Maharashtra has become muddy," the poster put up by MNS leader Laxman Patil read, in an apparent reference to recent splits in Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.
"Rajsaheb-Uddhavsaheb come together now. Entire Maharashtra is waiting for you - an earnest request of a Maharashtrian soldier with folded hands,” it said.
(With PTI inputs)
