India, May 19 -- Immediately after the Supreme Court's directive to hold local body polls within four months, the ruling Mahayuti announced that the three parties would contest the elections in an alliance. With the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) struggling to even announce whether they would contest together, it seemed like the Mahayuti was ready to contest as one unit. However, it is now emerging that its constituents may end up contesting against each other in cities where one of them is strong and also where the opposition appears weak. BJP leaders in Nagpur have conveyed to the party that it can win the BMC on its own and should not spare seats for allies Shiv Sena and NCP. In deputy CM Eknath Shinde's bastion Thane, Shiv Sena leaders are saying the same. In neighbouring Kalyan-Dombivli, BJP leaders are confident of winning on their own. According to Mahayuti camp leaders, there could be seat-sharing disputes with the Sena in Navi Mumbai and other cities in MMR as well as Nashik. Similarly, working out a seat-sharing pact with the NCP in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad will not be easy. Many Maharashtra BJP leaders believe that the current mood after India's military action against terror camps in Pakistan is favourable for the party and hence it should not cede much space to its allies. Acknowledging the mood in the party, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said there could be "friendly fights" (contests between allies) in some local bodies but was quick to add that they would ensure there was no bitterness. The only place where there does not seem to be much dispute is Mumbai, where the BJP and the Sena need each other. However, a section of the city BJP is now wary of Shinde's intentions. He has already poached half of Uddhav's 84 former corporators and a few more from other parties. If the Mahayuti wins and Shinde gets 40 to 50 seats, he may stake a claim on the mayoral post, they say. A decision he had taken as revenue minister in 2000 has come back to haunt Narayan Rane. The Supreme Court on May 15 ruled against the state's decision to allot 29 acres of forest land at Kondhwa, Pune, to a family that claimed to be cultivating it. The land was then sold to a builder, which was challenged by a citizen group, Nagrik Chetna Manch, in 2007. The apex court declared the allotment and all subsequent transactions and developments on the land as void, citing a clear violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. It also said that the diversion of forest land for non-forest use was illegal. The verdict could create problems for Rane, who has been hoping to return to the union cabinet as a minister. He was a union minister when he contested last year's Lok Sabha election, and was elected from the Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri constituency. However, he was not retained in the new cabinet. In a meeting on Friday, Eknath Shinde, furious with forest officers for denying permission to concretise a road at Gaimukh on the periphery of Thane, threatened to file a case against them for creating obstacles in a public interest work. As guardian minister of Thane, Shinde had called the meeting on disaster management ahead of the monsoon. When local officers told him that the road in question could not be concretised since the forest department had not granted permission for concretisation in the midst of a forest area, Shinde pointed out that the terrain was such that the asphalt road was getting washed away during heavy rains. He reportedly told the forest officers that this could cause accidents, and if that happened, cases could be filed against them. Significantly, the forest department is headed by the BJP's Ganesh Naik who is locked in a bitter political war with Shinde in Thane district. Speaking at the launch of Sanjay Raut's book, Narakatala Swarg (Heaven In hell) on Saturday, renowned lyricist Javed Akhtar recalled how he had once written an article clarifying his stand on certain issues after being targeted by both Hindu and Muslim right-wingers. Akhtar also got the article translated since he wanted it to be published in Marathi as well. He met Sanjay Raut to get it published in Saamna, the Marathi newspaper edited by Raut. In a lighter vein, Akhtar said that Raut was more impressed with the Marathi translation. "He first asked about the person who translated it, and not about me who wrote it," Akhtar quipped, but added that Raut was the only editor who published his entire article without any cuts....