BJP MP Sanjay Kakade meets Sharad Pawar

Media reports said Kakade claimed his meeting with the NCP patriarch was a "personal one".

Interestingly, the meeting was also attended by Jayant Patil, who replaced Ajit Pawar on Saturday as the NCP Legislature Party chief after he aligned with the BJP. Baban Shinde and Chhagan Bhujbal were also present at the meet, media reports said.

The meeting which lasted only 15 minutes came ahead of the hearing by the Supreme Court on a petition filed by Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress against Centre's move to end President's rule in Maharashtra and Governor's decision to swear in Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Sharad Pawar had said, Ajit Pawar's move to support BJP in forming the Maharashtra government was his "personal decision".

Yesterday, BJP had dished out a midnight stunner with the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Ajit Pawar as his Deputy, giving a blow to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's aspirations to rule the state for the next five years after Congress and NCP spoke of their support after dilly-dallying for nearly a month.

Kakade, who was earlier with NCP, is the first BJP leader to reach out to BJP. The Rajya Sabha MP had earlier claimed that 45 Shiv Sena MPs were ready to support a BJP government in Maharashtra, an NDTV report said..

After the poll results which came out on Oct 24, the Sena had demanded 50:50 power share in the government and rotational Chief Ministership which were rejected by the BJP.

Following the rejection of the demands, the Sena and BJP parted their ways.

The BJP has 105 seats, 40 less than the majority (145) while the Sena won 56 seats.

The NCP and Congress, which fought the polls in an alliance, have 54 and 44 seats respectively.