A very thin line exists between friends and foes in politics. The political north and south poles always meet during polls, irrespective of ideologies and differences of opinions. A prime example of this is seen here in Maharashtra, where the Congress is in alliance with NCP, a breakaway party from the Congress itself, which was formed in opposition of the Congress chief for her foreign origins. It’s no cause for surprise then that though the parties have been in alliance for 13 years now, their relations have soured.

The past week has laid bare all the acrimony once again. Soon after the Democratic Front government in its cabinet meeting on Wednesday approved the state industrial policy, NCP started playing a different tune, rather cleverly.u00a0Despite the fact that the chief minister did not allow the Directorate General of Public Relations and Information to issue a press release on industrial policy, contents of it made their way into the media. The official press briefing was scheduled on Thursday but the media reports clearly said the policy was not really an industrial one,but rather a housing one.