MUMBAI: Days after
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said there was no UPA and took a veiled dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his trips abroad, Shiv Sena MP
Sanjay Raut will meet him and Priyanka Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Raut confirmed to TOI he would meet with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Raut’s meeting is seen as significant considering that this past week, Banerjee had met him and Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray and then NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. After meeting Pawar, Banerjee had said there was no UPA anymore.
Raut had defended the Congress and hit out at TMC. The Shiv Sena said only time will tell who will lead the UPA but said it was important to first create an alternative to the BJP. In an editorial in Saamna, the party defended Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, saying despite facing political ridicule, they were fighting it out.
Meanwhile, Sena secretary and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s personal aide Milind Narvekar courted controversy on Monday after he tweeted a photo of Shiv Sainiks who took part in demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. “Thousands of tributes to the sacrifice made by Shiv Sainiks for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya,” he tweeted.