India, Jan. 4 -- The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections have exposed sharp fault lines within ruling alliances, with state-level partners turning rivals across several wards. Despite a pre-poll understanding, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena are locked in direct contests on as many as 119 seats, while the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), are facing each other on seven seats in what leaders have termed a "friendly fight".

The situation underlines the fragility of civic-level alliances, as delayed decisions, unresolved seat-sharing talks and last-minute nomination strategies resulted in alliance partners fielding candidates against each other...