Maharashtra: Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray Hold Closed-Door Meet At Renaissance Hotel

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray held a closed-door meeting at the Renaissance hotel, where the NCP legislators have been staying. Earlier, both the leaders addressed the lawmakers and assured them that the alliance between the two parties will go long. "Do not worry, this relationship will go long, our alliance will go a long way,” Thackeray said. The Sena chief was also joined by senior party leaders and son Aaditya Thackeray, won the last month's Maharashtra Assembly polls from Worli seat in Mumbai.

The Sena was helping the NCP and Congress to keep their flock together, they said. The Shiv Sena's trade unions have a robust presence in several of the city's top hotels.

A similar exercise is likely to be taken up with the Sena lawmakers to send 'right signals' to them, the sources said.

The NCP legislators moved to the Renaissance hotel in Powai area late Saturday night after they attended a party meeting at the YB Chavan Centre in south Mumbai.

The three parties were in the last stages of talks to form a government when, in a dramatic turn of events in the early hours of Saturday, NCP leader Ajit Pawar broke away from his party and joined hands with the BJP.

BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was then sworn in as the chief minister and Ajit Pawar as his deputy by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, NCP's MLA Manikrao Kokate (from Sinnar), who was present when Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in at the Raj Bhawan, returned to the suburban hotel around the same time when Sharad Pawar arrived there on Sunday.

With Agency Inputs