Mumbai, March 17 (UNI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah on Monday when Maharashtra legislature’s budget session was on.
According to sources, Shinde visited Delhi and had an in-depth discussion with PM Modi for one and a half hours. The discussion took place between 11 am and 12.20 pm on Monday after which Shinde also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at 12:30 pm, sources said.
“I come to Delhi every session to meet MPs. Yesterday I met our MPs. Today, I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. This was a goodwill meeting. I do what I want to do rather than who is criticising or who is saying what. The opposition is always criticising. I respond to criticism with action. I spoke to Narendra Modi that all parties in the country should remain united during the Iran-US war. I also told him that Shiv Sena is with him,” Shinde told media persons later.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is on a two-day special visit to Delhi. Shinde suddenly left the session while the budget session of the Maharashtra state legislature was underway in Mumbai and left for Delhi, He also met union Home Minister Shah and held detailed discussions about pending development works in the state.
Sources said that Shinde also reviewed the details of the legal battle going on in the Supreme Court regarding the bow and arrow election symbol involving the undivided Shiv Sena. Shinde has been discussing various aspects of the case with legal experts in Delhi, sources said.
Shinde is in the process of fine tuning his party’s strategy to present a strong case before the Supreme Court, when the case comes up for hearing.
Shinde also submitted a special internal report prepared by his party to Amit Shah. According to sources, Shinde conveyed to Shah that during the elections, expected cooperation from the BJP was not received. Due to this, many Eknath-Shinde led Shiv Sena candidates suffered defeats, as per the report Shinde submitted to Shah.
Significantly, Shinde is also expected to personally hand over the report to the central leadership of the BJP.
Reacting to the development of Shinde meeting Amit Shah in Delhi, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and chief Sena spokesperson told media persons here, “Eknath Shinde’s party high command is not in Mumbai, but in Delhi. While he may use the name Shiv Sena, his party was actually founded by Amit Shah. Amit Shah is his boss. He is the founder of Shinde’s party, and he is based in Delhi. So what’s surprising if Shinde went to meet him?”
“Shinde went to Delhi to meet Amit Shah to seek orders about what to do in Maharashtra. This is an internal matter of their party. They went to meet their real party chief,” Sanjay Raut said.
