In a move seen as extending an olive branch to the ruling coalition, Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, both legislators of Shiv Sena (UBT), called on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. The meet, on the sidelines of ongoing Winter Session of State Legislature is significant. Though in immediate future the current equations may not change, nothing is definite in politics. Thackeray father-son duo arrived in city for the Winter Session around Monday midnight and reached Vidhan Bhavan early in the morning on Tuesday. They both attended respective House, as Uddhav is Member of Legislative Council (MLC) while Aditya is Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). Aditya later told newspersons that the visit was just a courtesy call to congratulate Fadnavis, who spearheaded the spectacular victory for Mahayuti in recently held Maharashtra Assembly elections. The meet was held at CM’s office in Vidhan Bhavan campus.

 

The Thackeray father-son duo also called on Speaker Rahul Narwekar and congratulated on the latter’s election as Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly. Narwekar is erstwhile Shiv Sainik and now is with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and this is his second stint as the Speaker. Aditya further said, “The meeting with Chief Minister was in larger public interest and there was no politics involved. Now that elections are over, we discussed the ways to work in the interest of common man in Maharashtra.”

 

The gesture on part of Thackeray is seen as an attempt to bury the hatchet with Fadnavis, as he is now the undisputed no 1 in Maharashtra politics. Post 2019 elections, differences arose between erstwhile allies, Bharatiya Janata Party and then undivided Shiv Sena, as Thackeray was miffed and had even trained guns on Fadnavis. The bitter acrimony played out between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena later split and over these years, Thackeray’s lead is seen as move to signal a sort of truce. But the final outcome of the meeting will be known only later as in politics, it takes time for something to evolved into finality. To a querry, Aditya said the issue of Leader of Opposition did not come-up during the discussion, which was more general in nature. No specific agenda was kept for the meeting. The issue of appointment of Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly is a hot topic as both the Opposition and Government having divergent views. Shiv Sena (UBT) senior leaders including Anil Parab; Bhaskar Jadhav, Group Leader, Legislative Assembly; Ambadas Danve, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council; and Varun Sardesai, MLA, were also present at the meeting.