Day after separation, knives out in Maha political arena

Knives were out in Maharashtra's political arena, a day after long-standing political formations crumbled, with former allies turning foes and attacking each other.
Though primarily the tussle over chief ministership and reluctance to cede ground to 'junior partners' led to the collapse of 25-year-old BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and Congress- NCP coalition of 15 years, they blamed each other's conduct for the separation.
Sena, which together with BJP sang the 'Hindutva' tune during the existence of the alliance, changed track calling its erstwhile saffron ally the "enemy of Maharashtra", signalling a possible return to its original 'Marathi pride' agenda.
"Our other (Mahayuti) alliance parties wanted the Sena-BJP association to continue. More than that, it was what the 11 crore people of Maharashtra wanted. Those who trampled these sentiments are enemies of Maharashtra," Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"This (breaking of alliance) is an insult to the 105 Marathi martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement," the editorial went on to say.
"Those who till yesterday were praying in this tent are now offering namaz in the other tent," it said, apparently targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent remarks praising the "patriotism" of Indian Muslims.
BJP promptly hit back, saying the Sena should not have expected it to be a party to the "betrayal" of smaller constituents of 'Mahayuti', a rainbow alliance of six parties forged just before Lok Sabha polls.
"They possibly had the chief ministership in mind and hence the formula which they proposed to us would have resulted in complete elimination of our smaller alliances. That would have been a bigger betrayal of our alliance and the Shiv Sena could not have expected us to be a part of the betrayal arrangement," BJP General Secretary incharge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.