No Amit Shah-Jayant Patil meeting, says Fadnavis

Pune: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that no meeting was held between Jayant Patil from NCP’s Sharad Pawar camp and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Sunday. Patil in Mumbai, in his interaction with the media, also denied any such meeting. He said that he was at a party-related meeting in Mumbai. "On Saturday evening, I was at Sharad Pawar saheb's residence in Mumbai and with Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope and Sunil Bhusara at my residence later. On Sunday too, I was with Saheb. When did I travel to Pune for any meeting?” Patil added. Shah was in Pune for two days from Saturday for party-level meetings and a cooperative sector event. There was speculation that one of the meetings was with Patil on Sunday at the hotel on Senapati Bapat Road where Shah was put up. Fadnavis, who was with Shah in Pune, said, “No meeting was held between Jayant Patil and Shah. Some people like to spread rumours. I want to tell those who are into kite-flying to have some standards.”After Ajit Pawar and many NCP MLAs joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, there are speculations that Jayant Patil and others, including Rajesh Tope, may follow. On speculations about Patil joining the ruling alliance, cabinet minister Uday Samant said, that he should have done so along with Ajit Pawar.