Shinde holds emergency meet with his men, stays mum on agenda

CM Eknath Shinde held an all important closed door meeting with about 50 legislatogrs at CM’s residence ‘Varsha’

Kartikey Dev Singh

Mumbai: With the ongoing hearings regarding the party symbol, which will enforce the ‘legitimacy’ of either of the two factions of Shiv Sena -Thackeray and Shinde -, on Thursday, the Shinde faction - about 50 legislatogrsheld an all important closed door meetings at CM’s residence ‘Varsha’ under the chairmanship of CM Eknath Shinde. Although the faction leaders chose to keep their lips sealed on the agenda of the meeting, however, highly laced sources have revealed that looking at the current political clime in the state, Shin- de had called the meeting to gauge the mood of his ‘supporters’. Word is that owing to the constant jibes of the opposition regarding cabinet expansion and which Shinde and independent MLAs would be a part of it, Shinde had called the meet to find out what was going on in the minds of his faction leaders and also to ensure that discipline is maintained in case some legislators are not included in expansion.

Moreover, it is believed that discussion also occurred among the law makers over party symbol - Bow and Arrow - as the hearing is nearing its end and decision would be proclaimed soon by the EC. Further more, the election of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corpo ration (BMC) were also discussed along with the strategy of the Shinde faction.

DIDN’T MEET SHINDE IN SECRET, CLAIMS JITENDRA AWHAD

Mumbai (FIB): With rumours floating around that MLA JItendra Awhad met CM EKnath Shinde in secret, on Thursday, Awhad refuted the rumors and claimed that he had instead met state official Bhushan Gagrani. “I have not secretly met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. I went to meet Gagrani as I had some work. I went to Sahyadri Guest House for my work. But the journalists were in such a hurry that they started floating news of secret meeting between me and the Chief Minister. Unfortunately, I have to say that the news of my meeting with the Chief Minister behind closed doors has spread a lot. This news has been spread wrongly. I did not meet the Chief Minister even for a second. I met him only when a case under 354 was registered against me. I will never forget that such dirty politics was done against me,” Awhad said.