India, July 21 -- The 20-minute meeting between chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in the chamber of legislative council chairman Ram Shinde last Thursday has become the single most important event in the state's political scenario since the last assembly elections. According to insiders, the meeting was not spontaneous but a pre-planned one, a follow-up to Thackeray's son Aaditya's meeting with Fadnavis on an earlier occasion. Even Shinde was not in his chamber when Thackeray met Fadnavis with Aaditya in tow. Two days later, Fadnavis and Aaditya happened to be at a BKC hotel at the same time. Both Thackerays as well as Fadnavis have ensured that they are not accompanied by senior leaders from their respective parties when they meet. This means that whatever transpired in the meetings is known to only the three of them. The series of meetings coincides with the Shiv Sena (UBT)'s aggression against Shinde's ministers and MLAs, who are not helping their party's cause by getting enmeshed in controversies. Shinde's aides are irked that Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders such as Ambadas Danve and Anil Parab have managed to get details of cases to attack Shiv Sena ministers for irregularities, and are wondering who could have led them to these cases. A few weeks ago, Danve targeted social justice minister Sanjay Shirsat over his son's hotel purchase bid while Parab on Friday attacked minister of state for home Yogesh Kadam on an illegal dance bar in Kandivali, the licence of which is in the name of Kadam's mother. Shinde's aides suspect that this is not possible without somebody in the concerned departments giving their rival party the details. With so much going on, is there a major upheaval on the cards? Senior Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam and his son Yogesh Kadam were left red-faced after Anil Parab raised the said issue of a bar in Kandivali being run as a dance bar which was forced to shut down following a police raid on May 30, 2025. The bar's license was in the name of Jyoti, the senior Kadam's wife and Yogesh Kadam's mother. Ramdas Kadam had to accept that the license was in the name of his wife but sought to distance his family from the controversy by saying that the bar had been given to another person to run for the past 25 years. "After the police raid, we came to know what was happening there so we cancelled the agreement and shut down the bar," he insisted. The episode has put the father-son duo in a fix. Incidentally, Ramdas Kadam is one of Uddhav Thackeray's most vocal critics. While everybody in the corridors of power is talking about the honey trap who allegedly has 72 politicians and officials in a fix, Devendra Fadnavis on Friday insisted that there was no such scam. "There was no honey, no trap," he remarked. But that has not stopped the Opposition, especially Congress leaders, from demanding a thorough probe into the allegations. Senior Congress leader Nana Patole displayed a pen drive in the assembly, claiming that he had all the details while his party colleague Vijay Wadettiwar said that they had photos and videos and joked that they could charge thousands of rupees for each ticket if they showed these to "select people". They are even claiming that a North Maharashtra leader could get into trouble because of the honey trap racket. While his interview by Saamna executive editor Sanjay Raut was creating a flutter in political circles, Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday paid a visit to Raut's home at Bhandup to meet his family members. Thackeray, along with his wife Rashmi, also met Raut's mother and inquired about her health. Thackeray was also curious to see the place in Raut's home from where he did his daily press briefings, and Raut showed this to him. Raut, who played a key role in Thackeray snapping ties with the BJP in 2019, is now said to be doing his bit to bring the Thackeray cousins together. The long-awaited BMC elections may not be held immediately after the monsoon according to officials involved in the procedure. While political activities have gained momentum in anticipation of post-monsoon polls, chances are that the local body elections will be held in two or three phases, with municipal corporations going to the polls in the last phase. There is a possibility that the civic bodies governing major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Nashik will be the last to go to the polls, as a lot is at stake in these elections according to the buzz in Mantralaya....