BackShiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray meets Mamata Banerjee in Mumbai
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray called on West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Mumbai on Thursday, in a meeting described as a 'courtesy call'
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Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray called on West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Mumbai on Thursday, in a meeting described as a “courtesy call".
Uddhav’s elder son Aditya accompanied him to the meeting.
Banerjee is in Mumbai to meet top industrialists and investors and invite them to the West Bengal Global Investment Summit in January 2018.
A Shiv Sena official, who did not wish to be named, said though the meeting was a “courtesy call", it did involve “discussions on the current political situation in the country". Banerjee and Thackeray have been two of the most vocal critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization drive.
Though the Shiv Sena is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it has taken a critical stand on demonetization—Sena mouthpiece Saamana recently published a scathing editorial on the exercise, ahead of its first anniversary on 8 November.
Thackeray and Banerjee exchanged phonecalls soon after Modi announced his demonetization initiative, and Shiv Sena MPs joined the delegation led by the West Bengal chief minister to then President Pranab Mukherjee against the initiative.
“In a way today’s meeting was an extension of these developments," said the Sena official.
A BJP functionary, who did not wish to be named, said the Thackeray-Banerjee meeting was just “a well-choreographed attempt to show the BJP that the Shiv Sena is openly talking to BJP’s rivals even though it was part of the NDA".
“These are usual Shiv Sena antics and they are nothing more than a poor attempt to frustrate us. It is so ironic that here the Shiv Sena preaches Hindutva to us and hobnobs with Mamata whose rule in West Bengal is so anti-Hindu," said the BJP functionary.
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