Estranged cousins and political rivals Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray met this morning at the family's main residence Matoshree in Mumbai. It is being speculated that the meeting took place in the middle of a war over Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray's will. "When it is a question of the Thackeray family, the entire family comes together," said a spokesperson of Raj Thackeray's MNS party.

Raj, who lives in Dadar, drove to Matoshree, Uddhav’s residence in suburban Bandra. No aides werepresent at the meeting, Sena sources said. Another theory is that  there are  sparking speculation of possible reapproachement for the crucial civic polls in the city due early in 2016. The BMC polls are crucial for the two cousins whoregularly take potshots at each other.

Shiv Sena plays a second fiddle to ally BJP in the state ministry and it is trying hard to retain its rule over the BMC where BJP plays the second fiddle. The performance of MNS drastically suffered in the last Assembly polls where only one party MLA was elected, a far cry from 13 MNS MLAs elected in the 2009 polls.