Pawar mulls dinner meet with Eknath Shinde, Fadnavis ahead of MCA elections

The proposed dinner meeting is grabbing eyeballs as Pawar and CM Shinde will meet for the first time after the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray-led NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition earlier this year.

Mumbai: In a significant development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and NCP President Sharad Pawar are meeting over a dinner ahead of the Mumbai Cricket Association executive elections, scheduled on Thursday. The proposed dinner meeting is grabbing eyeballs as Pawar and CM Shinde will meet for the first time after the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray-led NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition earlier this year.

The revolt of the Shinde faction of the Sena led to a dramatic change of power in the state with Shinde becoming the Chief Minister. The dinner reunion of Pawar and Shinde is being closely watched amid the intensifying bitterness among the rival political outfits. It is being speculated that Devendra Fadnavis has played a political game ahead of the MCA elections by withdrawing the application of BJP candidate Murji Patel for the Andheri East Assembly by-election after the untimely demise of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year.

BJP's Murji Patel, who withdrew his nomination papers on Monday, was pitted against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction's candidate Rutuja Latke, the wife of late Ramesh Latke. In the MCA elections, there will be a direct fight between Amol Kale and Sandeep Patil for the post of MCA president. Amol Kale is a candidate of the Pawar-Shelar group and a favorite of Devendra Fadnavis. Sandeep Patil is the candidate of the Mumbai Cricket group.

Milind Narvekar of Shiv Sena, Jitendra Awad of the Nationalist Congress Party, and Ajinkya Naik of Bahujan Vikas Aghadi are also in the fray. Ashish Shelar will also be present on the occasion and strong campaigning is going on from both groups.