Mumbai: PM Modi, CM Thackeray seen together on stage after months

The 2 leaders attended inauguration of Jal Bhushan Building and Gallery of Revolutionaries at the Raj Bhavan and later 200th anniversary celebration of the Gujarati daily 'Mumbai Samachar' in the city

Amid acrimonious relations between the Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray shared the dais on Tuesday after more than four months.

The two leaders attended the inauguration of Jal Bhushan Building and Gallery of Revolutionaries at the Raj Bhavan and later the 200th anniversary celebration of the Gujarati daily 'Mumbai Samachar' in the city. On April 24, chief minister Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena, had noticeably skipped the function when Modi received the Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar award in the city. Before that, on March 6, when the prime minister visited Pune to inaugurate Pune Metro, Thackeray stayed away. The Sena had said the CM could not attend the function as he was recovering from a surgery.

Before that, Modi and Thackeray were seen together, for a few moments, during the last rites of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar at Shivaji Park in the city on February 6. The relations between the Sena and BJP, former allies who split up after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, have worsened steadily over the years. The Sena has often accused the Union government of misusing central agencies to target the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government in Maharashtra.

Some prominent ministers and legislators of the coalition have faced probes by the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies. Recently, the ED raided the properties of Thackeray's brother-in-law.