Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray held an hour-long meeting with chief minister Eknath Shinde, followed by a brief closed-door meeting at the latter’s residence on Saturday.
“MNS chief Raj Thackeray had a meeting with me over the issues related to public health. He made some suggestions to strengthen the public health system in the state,” the CM tweeted soon after the meeting.
Raj also raised the issue of Pune civic body sending notices to citizens for recovery of property tax with retrospective effect. He sought Shinde’s intervention to stop the recovery.
Raj was accompanied by entrepreneurs who have introduced new systems for conducting diagnostic tests in a short period. “I assured him that the options suggested by him would be considered,” Shinde said.
Both sides did not reveal what transpired in the closed-door meeting. A senior MLA from Shinde’s Sena faction said that the ruling alliance was keen on MNS support for their candidate in Andheri byelection.
The constituency has over 100,000 Marathi-speaking voters and Raj’s appeal to support the BJP candidate, Murji Patel, may help. Raj however has not said anything on the issue as yet.