MUMBAI, Nov. 19 -- Ahead of local body elections, competition between the allies in the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena, led to friction between both parties on Tuesday. Sena ministers skipped the weekly cabinet meeting held by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The BJP on Tuesday poached Anmol Mhatre, son of former corporator and close aide of Sena chief and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, Waman Mhatre, in Kalyan-Dombivli, which is the constituency of Shinde's son and Sena MP Shrikant Shinde. This triggered a fresh clash between the ruling allies, which followed a round of meetings to resolve the dispute. While Sena ministers read out a long list of grievances, Fadnavis too did some hard talking, pointing out that the Sena too was inducting local leaders, which could hurt the BJP. Anmol Mhatre; his wife Ashwini; former corporators Mahesh Patil, Sunit Patil and Sayli Vichare; and several office-bearers and workers from Kalyan-Dombivali, joined the BJP in the presence of state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan on Tuesday. The "secret operation" by Chavan -MLA from Dombivli - has upset the Sena leadership as the late Waman Mhatre was considered a close confidant of the Shinde father-son duo. This is not a one-off incident as the poaching spree between the two parties has been underway for a while ahead of the local body polls. The Sena and the BJP are at loggerheads in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), where each party is vying for power in nine municipal corporations and over a dozen other urban and rural local bodies. The BJP has inducted 17 former Sena corporators from MMR in the last few months, while the Sena has got nine former BJP corporators to switch sides. The Sena is upset also because two Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders, one each from Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, joined the BJP's ranks on Tuesday. Insiders say Sena MLAs are angry with the BJP for taking into their fold their rivals from last year's assembly elections. But it's Mhatre's induction into the BJP that really hurts as it is considered a "split engineered within the family". Sena ministers, who met Fadnavis after the cabinet meeting, told him it was "against the dharma of the alliance" to poach leaders from the Sena, and that the BJP must honour the non-poaching agreement between the two allies. Fadnavis, however, pointed out that the Sena had inducted BJP leaders and workers in Ulhasnagar, and this was just a "reaction by the BJP". He said the Sena had inducted five former BJP corporators in Ulhasnagar and a former BJP MLA too, and the BJP was never consulted. He said the Sena had "started it" and the BJP would not take it lying down. But the Sena is hitting back. Calling Fadnavis's utterances a "half-truth", one Sena leader retorted, "The BJP poached our leaders from Palghar by misleading them, saying there was an understanding between the two parties. They were also told that it followed discussions between Fadnavis and Shinde. "It's what happened in Dombivali too." To mollify Shinde, revenue minister and former state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule met him at his office in the state secretariat. Bawankule later told reporters that they had hammered out a truce and would not stomp on each other's turf. There was no cabinet boycott, Bawankule claimed. "Our ministers too are busy in local body elections. Eight BJP ministers too were absent from the cabinet meeting today,'' he insisted. Addressing the media, Shinde said, "We had a meeting with the CM and want our alliance to grow stronger; there should be no discord. We have fought all the elections (together) in the alliance and were very successful in the assembly polls." He added, "The CM and I decided that our relations must not be ruined. So we have decided not to poach people from our alliance partners. I have instructed our leaders about this." Transport minister Pratap Sarnaik (Sena) tried to downplay the incident. He said, "When local self-government elections take place, people switch parties. These incidents have happened in Palghar, Solapur, Thane, KDMC . There was some unhappiness in both partes and we agreed not to poach from other parties in the Mahayuti. The CM and deputy CM are not consulted in all cases,'' claimed Sarnaik. Later, on Tuesday evening, Sena minister Dada Bhuse claimed there was no dispute and that both parties would follow "alliance dharma at all levels". They would also "improve their coordination", he said. But Shinde is also angry with the BJP for inducting Congress and NCP (SP) leaders, who had contested against Sena candidates in earlier elections. This, apart from being denied the chief minister's post after the Mahayuti swept the assembly elections last year....