India, Sept. 21 -- On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 76th birthday last week, the one who took the lead in the celebrations was not a BJP leader but deputy chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde.

The day began with full-page advertisements in almost all newspapers, with Shinde greeting the PM-something none of his BJP colleagues did. That same morning, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and another deputy CM, Sunetra Pawar, travelled to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Beed, respectively, in the Marathwada region to attend programmes marking Marathwada Mukti Din, commemorating the region's liberation from Nizam rule.

Shinde, however, flew to Ahmedabad to attend the launch of the "Seva Sankalp Abhiyan" at Vadnagar, to mark the Prime...