Every time Union Home Minister Amit Shah comes to Maharashtra these days, he has to give a hearing to state deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde over the grievances Shinde has to voice. Eknath Shinde is generally unhappy over the way his Shiv Sena party members are being, allegedly, given secondary treatment in the functioning of the government in Maharashtra. There are too many issues on which Shinde has complaints, whether it is about the allocation of funds given to Shinde's party MLAs or the various project-related files that are not getting clearance fast enough. How there is a discord between three partners of the BJP-led Mahayuti is no secret. It is interesting to see why there is so much trust deficit between Shinde and the BJP now and why the BJP has started giving more importance to Ajit Pawar in the alliance to almost challenge Shinde's domination.

Last weekend, the deputy CM made it a point to have one-on-one meetings twice with Amit Shah. Sources inside the Shiv Sena informed the media about the discussions that happened in the two closed-door meetings. One meeting happened late at night in Pune and the other in........

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