The BJP wants Kalyan and would like Shrikant to shift to Thane. It also wants Palghar, which it had won in Lok Sabha by-election but later handed it over to Shiv Sena along with its MP (Gavit) as a goodwill gesture in 2019. According to the BJP insiders, they know Shrikant will not leave Kalyan seat easily, but they can use the issue to force Shinde to concede some Lok Sabha seats, which the party thinks the Shinde-led Shiv Sena cannot retain.

In 2019, the BJP contested in 26 seats while Shiv Sena fielded candidates in 22 constituencies. Sena won 18 seats of which 12 MPs are now with Shinde, but the chief minister is now insisting on contesting in all the 22 constituencies, to which the BJP does not agree.

For instance, it wants Mumbai south seat, which is currently represented by the Thackeray faction MP Arvind Sawant. Shinde’s party doesn’t even have a candidate while the BJP has at least three potential candidates for the seat, point out the party leaders.

The party also thinks the Shinde camp has negligible strength in Vidarbha region. Sena’s Vidarbha MPs such as Bhawana Gawli and Kripal Tumane cannot win without the support of the BJP. So why not take those seats and field its own candidates? However, the issue took an unexpected turn with Shinde’s advertisement campaign as he decided to flex his muscles. The advertisements caught the BJP and deputy chief minster Devendra Fadnavis by surprise.

State BJP leaders, who are already worried over the image of the party and the government over the way Shinde’s ministers are behaving, could not believe themselves when they saw the advertisement implying that Shinde was a more popular choice for the CM’s post than Fadnavis.

The reaction that came over the next three days, following the advertisement, and Shinde’s balancing act of issuing a “corrective” advertisement the very next day, shows that things are not hunky dory in the alliance.

Shinde camp insists that they have sent a message to the BJP that they cannot be cowed down even though their numbers are half of that of the latter in the assembly.

“First, they challenged Shinde’s dominance in Thane-Kalyan. Then they told the media discreetly about the complaints against our ministers and how Shinde is under pressure to rein them in. We had to create the perception that we could not be taken for granted. With the ad campaign, the message has reached the right place. It also creates perception that Shinde’s position is strong, and he calls the shots in the alliance,” said a key aide of Shinde. What will be the long-term fallout of this adventure? It remains to be seen.

Posturing after tiff

Following the advertisement controversy, both the ruling parties tried to issue veiled threats to each other.

A top BJP leader met Thackeray aides Sanjay Raut and Milind Narvekar at the reception of a wedding in Bandra Kurla Complex last Wednesday. He greeted them warmly and enquired about Uddhav Thackeray’s well-being and asked if he could call Thackeray sometime for a chat. Considering the way he asked, even as several guests were watching, the message was probably meant for Shinde camp.

Next day, there were images of Shinde’s minister Gulabrao Patil sitting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar while the duo travelled in a train from Mumbai to Jalgaon. Pawar took the train to reach Jalgaon for a party meeting. Patil, who was on the same coach, reached Pawar’s compartment and greeted him when he came to know that the NCP chief was travelling on the same train.

Pawar then invited him for a chat. While all this was happening, Ajit Pawar sought an inquiry against a local police officer in Kalyan. It was the same officer whom the BJP had accused of being under the protection of the Shindes. Many in the NCP are wondering why Ajit did the bidding for the BJP. Wheels within wheels?

Poaching Shinde style

Meanwhile, chief minister Eknath Shinde’s poaching spree continues. For the past few weeks, the speed with which he has been poaching on the Thackeray faction has increased. He has already taken away more than a dozen former corporators in Mumbai. He has also poached on visible faces such as Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande to score over Thackeray in the battle of perception.

Recently, he even took away a couple of people who were part of the digital campaign team of Shiv Sena. One of them was Amol Matkar, who played a key role in “Karun Dakhawale” (We did it) campaign of Shiv Sena in 2012 Mumbai civic polls.