Amid growing tensions within Maharashtra’s ruling parties, the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Deputy CM and State BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on June 13 cancelled his visit to Kolhapur district citing ‘medical reasons’.
Friction arose between the ‘Mahayuti’ (translated ‘grand alliance’) partners after a newspaper advertisement placed by the Shinde-led Sena cited a survey which claimed Mr. Shinde was more preferred as the State’s CM than Mr. Fadnavis.
Leaders from the Shinde camp scrambled to downplay any differences between their party and the BJP over the survey while the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) pooh-poohed the government’s survey, saying it was “laughable” that the Shinde camp had deployed an agency to conduct a survey obviously favourable to them.
