Mumbai, July 13: UPA's presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee tonight met Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray at latter's residence ‘Matoshree' here, to thank him for the support in the election.
After the 20-minute meeting, Mukherjee told the waiting mediapersons that he had come to thank Thackeray. “I came here to thank him for supporting me. I am meeting all leaders who have extended support to my candidature,” he said.
Union Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, known to have a good personal equation with Thackeray, too was present during the meeting.
For the second time, Sena has broken ranks with NDA in the Presidential election. In 2007, it had backed UPA nominee Pratibha Patil, on the ground of she being a Maharashtrian.
Talking to media, Thackeray said that P A Sangma, the NDA-backed nominee, was a “friend”, but the Presidency was not about “friendship or caste”.
To a question on his calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as deaf and dumb in a recent Samana editorial, Thackeray said those were his “sentiments”.
Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and his sons Aditya and Tejas were present at the meeting.
Thackeray refused to divulge details of discussions with Mukherjee, when he was asked if he raised the issue of Afzal Guru's hanging and Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute during the meeting.
