The current political scenario in the state is similar to an Akbar Birbal story. Emperor Akbar was too fond of his parrot, but one day the bird dies. None of the ministers have the courage to break the news to him as they fear they would incur his wrath. This is the same case with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who have parted ways and are all set to contest the forthcoming assembly elections independently. However, none of the ministers from the parties are willing to come on record and accept this as they fear it will send tremors of distrust in political circles across the state. On Saturday night, Devendra Fadnavis, BJP’s state unit chief, visited Matoshree to talk to Uddhav Thackeray about the seat sharing formula.

(L to R) NCP’s state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, CM Prithviraj Chavan, BJP’s state unit chief Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena spokesman MP Sanjay Raut may be smiling here, but things are far from fine. Pic/Ravikiran Deshmukh