Day after Uddhav-Fadnavis meet, NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar meets PM Modi, VP Jagdeep Dhankhar

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the latter's office in Parliament. Accompanied by farmers from Phaltan in western Maharashtra, Pawar presented pomegranates to PM Modi.

After his meeting with the Prime Minister, Pawar Sr said that the discussion was solely focused on agrarian issues, especially those faced by pomegranate cultivators. 

He also clarified that no political matters were discussed in this meeting with Modi. Previously, he also wrote to PM Modi, inviting him to inaugurate the 98th Marathi Sahitya Sammelan to be held at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium in February 2025. 

"I did not broach the topic of Sahitya Sammelan," the NCP (SP) chief said after meeting PM Modi. Later, the NCP (SP) supremo also met Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. 

Pawar's meetings with PM Modi and Dhankhar came almost a day after Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Speaker Rahul Narwekar. 

His meetings with the two triggered speculations in political circles that he may be softening his aggressive stance against the ruling Mahayuti in order to get Leader of Opposition (LoP) post in the state assembly. 

When asked whether the LoP post was discussed or not during the meeting, Narwekar said that he did not receive any proposal regarding the same. He said: "If any proposal is put up before me, I will consider the same in accordance with the rules and procedures of the state assembly."

He added that it was a courtesy meeting by the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief. 

"Uddhav is the group leader of Shiv Sena (UBT) and a lot of group leaders have called on the speaker and in the same note, he visited the Speaker's office."

The opposition bloc -- Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- was trounced in the recently conducted Maharashtra assembly elections, with just 46 seats in its kitty. 

Shiv Sena (UBT) emerged as the largest party with 20 seats, followed by Congress at 16 and NCP (SP) at just 10 seats, respectively. No party could secure enough seats to claim the Leader of Opposition position in the state. 

Maharashtra assembly has a total of 288 seats. Of these, a party needs to have at least 28 MLAs to claim the LoP position.