The Ajit Pawar led NCP faction on Thursday claimed that the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was seriously considering joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after his meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi in July 2021.The rebel NCP faction’s Maharashtra president Sunil Tatkare said this was disclosed by Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut in a meeting with Ajit Pawar soon after meeting the prime minister.
Thackeray with then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and then public works department minister Ashok Chavan had met the prime minister and discussed issues such as Maratha and OBC reservation, nomination of 12 MLCs and release of GST compensation dues on June 8, 2021. After the meeting with the delegation, Modi met Thackeray in a one-on-one meeting for around 30 minutes.“After meeting the PM, Raut contacted me to schedule a meeting with Ajit Dada. During this meeting, he said that Uddhav ji is seriously contemplating joining hands with BJP again after his interaction with PM Modi,” Tatkare claimed on Thursday. The BJP-Sena alliance was in power from 2014-19 under the chief ministership of Mr. Fadnavis. The saffron alliance finally broke up for the second time after the 2019 Assembly election results.