In a significant political development in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP president Amit Shah will meet his Shiv Sena counterpart Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Uddhav has been maintaining that his party will go alone in all future elections.
After the setback which the BJP suffered in the recently-concluded bypolls, this seems to be a concentrated move of possible rapprochement with the allies, including the Shiv Sena— the BJP's oldest ally, which is part of the BJP-lead alliance at the Centre and in Maharashtra.
Shah will meet Uddhav at Matoshree, the Bandra bungalow of the Thackeray family.
The meeting is scheduled around 6 pm. It is not yet known who else will be part of the meeting.
This will be their second meeting in Matoshree since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power.
"The BJP president has sought time to meet Uddhav ji. There is no agenda from our side," Shiv Sena spokesperson and Executive Editor of Saamana, the party mouthpiece, Sanjay Raut said.
The BJP chief is in Mumbai for a "Sampark for Samarthan" (contact for support), one of his outreach efforts ahead of the 2019 polls.
The meeting assumes significance in the wake of strained relations between the two saffron alliance partners.
It may be recalled in the Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha seat bypolls, the BJP and Shiv Sena contested against each other, in which the former won by a margin of 29,000 votes.
The BJP roped in Rajendra Gavit, who resigned from the Congress to contest the polls after the Sena had fielded Shrinivas Vanaga, the son of late BJP MP Chintaman Vanaga, whose untimely death necessitated the polls.
After the results came in, Uddhav had reiterated that Sena will go alone in future polls.
Uddhav also took on the Election Commission and asked political parties to join hands and raise the EVM-issue.
This move has in fact given fodder to Opposition parties like the Congress and the NCP.
On Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held a meeting of state district presidents, in which he asked them to prepare for polls irrespective of whether the alliance happens or not.
"In Palghar polls we have shown our strength and this has rattled others," Raut said.