India, June 13 -- MUMBAI Amid a swirl of speculations of the Thackeray cousins putting aside their differences and reuniting, ahead of the local body elections planned in the latter half of 2025, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis held a closed door meeting with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday afternoon at Taj Lands End, Bandra, stoking rumours of his attempt to put a spoke in the wheels of an Uddhav-Raj pact.

While leaders of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and MNS remained tight-lipped about what transpired between the two leaders, people in the know told HT that the meeting was not on Fadnavis's schedule for the day; he eked out time for it out-of-turn.

Raj Thackeray reached the hotel at around 9....