India, Jan. 5 -- Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's attack on ally BJP in Pimpri last Friday took top BJP leaders by surprise. In Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar's NCP is pitted against BJP and while some fireworks were expected, the deputy CM's bitter tirade in a press conference was unexpected. He called the BJP a "gang of robbers" and a "corrupt monster". To make it worse, he taunted the BJP by saying he was now in power with the same people (meaning the BJP) who had made allegations against him in the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam. Irked BJP leaders then launched an attack on Pawar, even indirectly reminding him about the ongoing probe against him. Top leaders like state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan and senior ministers like Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Chandrakant Patil did not mince words as they advised Pawar to be careful in his criticism of the party. The NCP chief has since toned down his attack but the incident has exposed the fault-lines within the alliance. The gloves are also off between Pawar and union minister of state for civil aviation Murlidhar Mohol. The duo has been accusing each other of supporting criminals in Pune. In fact, BJP leaders suspect that Pawar was behind the controversy over redevelopment of a Jain community trust land for which Mohol drew flak. On the other hand, the deputy CM's aides feel the minister had something to do with the Mahar Watan land issue that put Pawar's son Parth in trouble. Will the war be limited to the municipal elections or would it continue after that? Only time will tell. The dispute between Uddhav Thackeray's chief strategist Anil Parab and legislator Varun Sardesai has become a talking point in the party. The reason for this dispute was the candidature from a ward in Bandra east. Parab wanted the party to field Chandrashekhar Wayangankar, a local party worker, while Sardesai, the local MLA, insisted on fielding Hari Shastri, a who had helped him in his election a year ago. Sardesai happens to be a nephew of Uddhav's wife, Rashmi Thackeray. Thackeray ruled in favour of Shastri which irked Parab. There were reports of Parab leaving Matoshree in a huff following an argument between him and Sardesai and the party leadership's decision to field Shastri. While Thackeray tried to broker peace between the two, Wayangankar rebelled and decided to contest as an independent. The enmity between BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut is well known. Somaiya had made several allegations against Raut in the Patrawala Chawl redevelopment case. Later, Raut had to spend some time in prison in a related case. Last week, as the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended, there were reports that Somaiya's son Neil was set to be elected unopposed from a ward in Mulund east as his opponents had backed out. "God is great!", a grinning Somaiya reacted as mediapersons asked him about the news. In the seat-sharing pact in Thackeray brothers' coalition, the particular ward went to NCP (SP). However, the party candidate's candidature was declared invalid in scrutiny. On Sunday, Raut announced that Dinesh Jadhav, a former Shiv Sena shakha pramukh, who was contesting as an independent, will now have Shiv Sena (UBT)'s backing. The ward will now see a shadow fight between Somaiya and Raut, with the latter making sure that his bete noire's son won't get a walkover. Union minister Ramdas Athawale was angry as the BJP-Sena alliance did not leave his party any seats when they finalised their seat-sharing agreement for Mumbai. On December 30, he posted on social media that his party was called for a discussion but that never took place. He said it was an attack on their self-respect. A few hours later, he even released a list of 39 candidates and declared a "friendly fight" with allies BJP and Shiv Sena. The next day 30 of his candidates filed nominations. CM Fadnavis took note of his unhappiness and held a meeting with him. Athawale then scaled down his demand to 17 and was willing to contest even 5-6 seats. It is not clear what was agreed upon but on Saturday, Athawale was seen on dais with Fadnavis and Shinde, where he even recited a few of his own couplets in support of Mahayuti....