Mumbai, June 14
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray shared the stage on Tuesday after more than four months of bitter ties between the Shiv Sena and the BJP in Maharashtra.
The two leaders attended the inauguration of Jal Bhushan Bhawan and Revolutionaries’ Gallery at Raj Bhavan and later the 200th anniversary celebrations of Gujarati daily ‘Mumbai Samachar’ in the city.
On April 24, when Modi received the Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award in the city, Chief Minister Thackeray, who was the head of the Shiv Sena, did not attend the ceremony.
Earlier, on March 6, when the Prime Minister went to Pune to inaugurate the Pune Metro, Thackeray stayed away. Shiv Sena had said that the CM could not attend the function as he was recovering from a surgery.
Earlier, Modi and Thackeray were seen together for a few moments during the last rites of famous singer Lata Mangeshkar at Shivaji Park in the city on February 6.
Relations between the Shiv Sena and the BJP, former allies that parted ways after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, have steadily deteriorated over the years.
Shiv Sena has often accused the central government of misusing central agencies to target the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government in Maharashtra.
Some prominent ministers and MLAs of the coalition have faced scrutiny by the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies. Recently, the ED had raided the properties of Thackeray’s brother-in-law.