India, March 11 -- "You didn't hike the tax on Mercedes cars, did you," Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray quipped as he ran into chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the Vidhan Bhavan on Monday. Fadnavis, along with his deputies, Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, was on his way to the press room for the post-budget press conference when he crossed paths with Thackeray.

As Fadnavis greeted Thackeray with folded hands, the Sena (UBT) chief tossed the barb, not at him but at Shinde, his bete noire and Shiv Sena chief, who was trailing Fadnavis. Thackeray's taunt referenced the allegation made by senior Sena leader Neelam Gorhe, that the Thackerays would ask for "two Mercedes cars in exchange for party posts" when Uddhav headed the undivided...