What stopped them from making further impact was the kind of competition they faced from the Shiv Sena which was also looking out for spreading its influence in the state and increase its influence beyond Sahyadri ranges. Sena which got its roots in Mumbai-Thane and other parts of the Konkan had a few pockets of influence like Nasik and Aurangabad and wanted to increase its reach to other parts of the Western Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada. The Sena could make inroads in Marathwada and the BJP could expand its base in Vidarbha region due to its support to the demand for separate Vidarbha state. Due to working at cross purposes neither the Sena nor the BJP could make real inroads in the Western Maharashtra and which failed to get majority in the last Lok Sabha and the assembly elections held in 1999. Had they worked in a better coordination and distributed area for expanding their base, they could have fared very well, lamented a senior Sena leader after the party failed to retain its power in the state.
Power is really a cementing force.
Once, both the parties are out of power, there is once again talk about parting of ways. Apart from militant Hindutva adopted by Sena chief Bal Thackeray which is not even palatable to the die-hard BJP activists, the Sena is making all kinds of efforts to spread to neighbouring states. Though it has not succeeded in gaining any ground either in MP or in Gujarat, the very fact that the Sena is contesting all kinds of elections on its own against the BJP candidates is making BJP stalwarts rethink about their strategy. The Sena leaders have taken a stand that the BJP should not adopt a big brother kind of attitude and allow it to grow in the other states. When we fight against the BJP, we do not take out their votes but actually stop some votes going to their immediate rival.