"This arrangement between the BJP, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will not work. The general sentiment is that a few months down the line, the frictions will only increase and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will eventually attempt to lead the government," an MLA of Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena (SHS) told The Quint on the condition of anonymity, while highlighting the unrest within the party in the over NCP leader Ajit Pawar joining the ranks.
By engineering a coup on the NCP and joining the Maharashtra government as the deputy chief minister on 2 July, Ajit Pawar did not just shock the voters in the state, but also many MLAs of the Eknath Shinde faction who once again find themselves in the exact dilemma they faced in 2019 when Uddhav Thackeray's decided to ally with the NCP and the Congress.
In June last year, 40 of the Shiv Sena MLAs in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Shinde withdrew support, split the Shiv Sena, and formed the government with the BJP on the basis of two claims — First, that the NCP was trying to finish the Shiv Sena, and second, Ajit Pawar ensured MLAs of other parties didn't get funds for their constituencies.