Prashant Kishor meets Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena calls it courtesy meeting

Mumbai, Feb 05: Eyebrows are being raised over Election strategist Prashant Kishor's meeting with Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree. While Shiv Sena maintained it was a "courtesy" meeting, Kishor's visit to Thackeray's residence gave fodder to speculations in political circles.

The meeting, which lasted for around one and half hours, led to speculations that Kishor has offered his skills and knowledge to Shiv Sena for the upcoming General Election.

Aditya Thackeray described him as "special visitor" in a tweet that showed the Thackeray duo chatting with Prashant Kishor.

"Today Uddhav Thackeray ji and I had a special visitor over lunch. Some great talks Prashant Kishore ji," tweeted Aaditya Thackeray. The meeting comes at a time when the Shiv Sena is at loggerheads with its NDA partner BJP, especially over big brother tag in the alliance.

Talking to reporters, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that Prashant is a senior leader of JD(U), which is an important ally of NDA and the meeting between him and Uddhav Thackeray was in that regard. He added that the meeting should be seen a courtesy visit and not a political visit.

In September last year, he joined the JD-U and elevated to the post of national vice-president weeks later triggering speculation that he was being thought of by Kumar as his political heir. Under Kishor's leadership, the JD-U had defeated BJP's student wing ABVP the Patna University Students Union (PUSU) election held in December last year.