THE Bihar Assembly election results put the Bharatiya Janata Party and its frenemy Shiv Sena in a confronting position once again, this time over the allotment of the chief minister's office to an ally. Suggesting that Bihar could have gone the Maharashtra way, the Sena claimed credit for Nitish Kumar retaining the CM throne even though his party won fewer seats than its ally, the BJP.

The Sena mouthpiece, Saamana, in an editorial on Wednesday stated that the saffron alliance in Maharashtra went kaput last year, creating a new dimension to the state's politics by sending the BJP, the single largest party, in the opposition because it broke a promise that the Sena would get the CM's post even if it won fewer seats than its ally.