Sharad Pawar visits ailing Sena MP Sanjay Raut at Mumbai Hospital

Mumbai, Nov 12: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday visited Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut at a hospital in Mumbai where the latter underwent angioplasty. Pawar's visit to 57-year-old Raut, admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here, comes in the midst of the ongoing political drama in Maharashtra.

What transpired between the two leaders during the meet, which came in the backdrop of the political crisis in the state, was not immediately known. The NCP president was accompanied by his grandnephew and MLA Rohit Pawar.

Raut, who led Sena's charge to seek an equal share in power with the BJP after the Assembly poll results in Maharashtra, complained of chest pain on Monday following which he underwent angioplasty, a procedure to restore blood flow through the artery.

After the state Assembly election results were declared on October 24, Raut had visited Pawar several times amid the political deadlock over government formation. The Shiv Sena on Monday suffered a setback in its efforts to cobble up a non-BJP government in the state with the Congress at the last moment announcing its decision to hold more talks with ally NCP on supporting the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

While Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said two parties (Congress and NCP) have agreed "in-principle" support the Sena-led government, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari refused additional time sought by his party to muster numbers.

Later, the NCP, which is the third-largest party in the state, got an invite from the governor, asking it to express "willingness and ability to form the government". With 54 MLAs, the NCP is the third-largest party after the BJP (105) and the Shiv Sena (56) in the 288-member House, where the halfway mark in 145. Congress has 44 MLAs.