Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray met Home Minister and BJP heavyweight Amit Shah on Tuesday amid rampant speculation that the right-wing party may be welcomed into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
Accompanied by his son Amit Thackeray, the firebrand politician held a meeting with Amit Shah in Delhi. The tete-a-tete between the two leaders comes a day after sources told India Today TV that the MNS is likely to join forces with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra with weeks to go to the high-stakes parliamentary elections.
According to sources, Raj Thackeray landed in Delhi on Monday night, at a time when Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule are also in the national capital.
Thackeray is likely to demand two seats -- South Mumbai and Shirdi -- for his party MNS, sources said.
Raj Thackeray is the estranged cousin of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is in the opposition in Maharashtra. Raj Thackeray is the nephew of Uddhav's father Bal Thackeray, the late founder of Shiv Sena.
Uddhav Thackeray leads the other faction of the Shiv Sena. However, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar had in January ruled that the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was the "real Shiv Sena".
The Shiv Sena split into two factions after a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde in 2022, following which he became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Currently, the ruling alliance in Maharashtra consists of BJP, NCP and Shinde-led Sena.
