Late this afternoon, the Shiv Sena was convinced that a meeting of its top ally, Sharad Pawar, with Home Minister Amit Shah, was the stuff of feverish political imaginations. "I can say with conviction that the meeting did not take place", tweeted Sanjay Raut, a leader of the Sena, trying his hand at moving the pendulum back from where he had set it just hours ago - the day began with him acknowledging that the storied dinner meeting, just two days old, was in the realm of possibility - or at any rate, his party had no reason to believe otherwise. "If Amit Shah and Sharad Pawar met, why worry," he had tendered, "can't a senior MP meet the Home Minister?"