Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday downplayed the “secret” meeting between Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Pune a day earlier and said that NCP chief Sharad Pawar may have asked his nephew to join the meeting of the opposition bloc I-N-D-I-A here on August 31 and September 1, reported the PTI.

The NCP president Sharad and the Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar are believed to have met at the residence of a businessman in Pune on Saturday, as per the PTI.

Visuals aired by regional news channels showed Sharad Pawar arriving at the residence of the businessman in Koregaon Park area at around 1 pm. He left by around 5 pm. After nearly two hours, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was seen leaving the premises in a car at 6:45 pm while apparently trying to avoid cameras, according to the PTI.

Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs had joined the Eknath Shinde government, which also has the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on July 2, in the process causing a vertical split in the NCP.

“No one is happy in the Shinde government. People are disappointed with the government and even deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are unhappy,” Raut told reporters.

“If (former Pakistan prime minister) Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi can meet, why can`t the Pawars? Jokes apart, Sharad Pawar is expected to clear his stand in a few days. Sharad Pawar might have told Ajit Pawar to come back (to Maha Vikas Aghadi) like he did after the early morning swearing in (2019 with Fadnavis as CM). Anything can happen in politics,” Sanjay Raut asserted, reported the PTI.

Meanwhile, Raut said it was the BJP which severed ties with the Shiv Sena in 2014 and 2019.

“After Amit Shah met Uddhav Thackeray for renewing the alliance, Devendra Fadnavis had announced there will be 50:50 power sharing if the Sena BJP alliance returns to power (after the 2019 Assembly polls). But the BJP went back on its word,” he claimed, according to the news agency.

Sanjay Raut also said Eknath Shinde would have been CM in 2019 but the BJP was not keen to have him on the top post.

However, the BJP made him CM after he split the Shiv Sena (in June last year), Sanjay Raut said.

Meanwhile, replying to a query, Raut claimed “it would be difficult for PM Narendra Modi to move out of Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency if Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested from there (in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls)”, adding that “I am confident Priyanka will win”.

Asserting the “entire nation will stand with Rahul Gandhi” in 2024, Raut claimed “there will be change in Amethi (held by Union Minister Smriti Irani), Varanasi (PM Modi) and Rae Bareli (held by Sonia Gandhi)”.

(with PTI inputs)

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