In The Group Hug With Fadnavis & Ajit Pawar, Eknath Shinde's Discomfort Evident

From expressing disappointment to staking claims on seats, Shinde-led Shiv Sena is unhappy with the NCP alliance.

"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.