Scotching all speculation, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said that senior leader Sharad Pawar met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, but there's nothing to worry about the stability of the Maha Vikas Aghadi which is firmly in the saddle.
His comments came after coalition partner and Nationalist Congress Party President Pawar held a private 90-minute on Monday evening amid conjectures that differences had cropped up among the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Opposition has yet to discover a vaccine for Corona and a dose to bring down the Uddhav Thackeray governmenta But efforts are on," Raut said, indirectly hinting at a potential political crisis.
However, in the same breath he warned that "any attempt to destabilize the state could backfirea and advised the Opposition to go into aquarantine'.
Raut dismissed as "wishful thinking" all rumours hovering over the fate of the MVA regime, saying "the government is strong, and there's no cause for worries".
Amid a Centre-State fracas, hectic politicking started in the state on Monday capped with Pawar and his close confidante Praful Patel, MP getting an invite from Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for high-tea last evening at Raj Bhavan.
Pawar made his first-ever acourtesy visit' to greet Koshyari setting tongues wagging, and later he travelled to Bandra to meet Thackeray at his residence 'Matoshree'.
Shortly afterwards, senior BJP leader and ex-Chief Minister Narayan Rane called on the Governor and reportedly demanded imposing President's Rule in the state as the Thackeray government had failed to rein in the pandemic.
Rane voiced the views of Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis who last week complained that the Thackeray government had bungled in handling the Coronavirus situation, and later the Governor called a review meeting on the subject.
( With inputs from IANS )