What's cooking? Shinde, Fadnavis, Pawar hold late-night meet

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde held a late night meeting with Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar after which some state Bharatiya Janata Party leaders left for Delhi for a review meet, sources said on Tuesday.

Details of the meeting were not available. It was convened in the backdrop of the ruling Mahayuti's below par performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

"CM Shinde held a meeting with Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar at his official residence 'Varsha'. After Pawar left, Shinde and Fadnavis continued the meeting for some time," a source in the BJP said on Tuesday.

BJP's central leadership has called a review meeting with state leaders in connection with the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

"It is a routine exercise in the BJP to hold such review meetings with state leaders. (BJP leader) Fadnavis offered to resign some days back after the results were out. He had stated that he wished to work for the party full-time till the state assembly elections. This will also be discussed in the Delhi meeting," the source said.

Union minister Bhupender Yadav has been appointed as in-charge of the Maharashtra BJP unit and Ashwini Vaishnaw as its associate in-charge.

The Maharashtra assembly polls are due in October this year.

In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde and NCP headed by Ajit Pawar, won 17 out of 48 seats in the state.

The BJP won 9 seats, Shiv Sena 7 and NCP 1.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) of Sharad Pawar, bagged 30 seats.