Meeting between Sanjay Raut and Devendra Fadnavis sparks speculations

Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Saturday met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis at a five-star hotel in the western suburb of Mumbai. The meeting between the two leaders has sparked speculations in the political circles. 

This meeting comes amid the tussle between BJP and Shiv Sena which started over the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. For the past few months, the BJP in Maharashtra has constantly tried to corner the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government while siding with Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut. 

Moreover, the Narayan Rane family has continuously attacked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son - Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray - amid the chaos over the SSR death case. 

Amid all this, the meeting between Fadnavis and Raut comes as surprise. Raut has been a strong critic of the BJP even since Shiv Sena broke its 35-year-old alliance with the saffron party after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections. 

However, Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay cleared the air and said that there was no political angle to the meeting. He said that Raut asked Fadnavis to do an interview for ‘Saamana’ and the meeting was held to discuss the same. 

“Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut met. Raut expressed his desire to interview Fadnavis and it was decided to meet once for this interview,” Upadhyay tweeted in Marathi. 

माजी मुख्यमंत्री @Dev_Fadnavis आणि शिवसेना नेते @rautsanjay61 यांची भेट झाली आहे. संजय राऊत यांनी सामनासाठी देवेंद्र फडणवीस यांची मुलाखत घेण्याची इच्छा प्रदर्शित केली होती. त्यावर या मुलाखतीसाठी एकदा भेटण्याचे ठरले होते. ती संपूर्ण मुलाखत अनएडिटेड जावी...1

— Keshav Upadhye (@keshavupadhye) September 26, 2020

Fadnavis has demanded that the interview should be unedited and should be held after the Bihar assembly elections, he added. 

This was the first meeting between Raut and Fadnavis after their parties broke alliance in Maharashtra in 2019 over the power-sharing issue and it lasted for about two hours. 

Earlier, the BJP has said that they will be ready to form an alliance with the Shiv Sena in future. Therefore, despite BJP leaders saying that no political context should be seen, the meeting has created speculations.