India, May 20 -- Amid widespread speculation of a tussle with her party's senior leadership, Nationalist Congress Party chief and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar, met political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday in Mumbai.

At the two-hour-long meeting, Pawar, accompanied by her elder son and Rajya Sabha MP Parth, and Kishor are believed to have discussed plans to strengthen the party's base across Maharashtra, with the strategist making a preliminary presentation on how this can be achieved.

Until recently, the NCP used the services of Delhi-based strategist Naresh Arora's company DesignBoxed. It had been Arora's idea to soften the late Ajit Pawar's image by putting him in a pink jacket.

A senior party leader who did ...