After months of friction over power sharing and fund allocation, the three Mahayuti partners – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) –  have agreed to contest the local body elections together to keep the alliance intact ahead of the election, while dividing control of the state-run corporations.

At a coordination committee meeting held in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP agreed to divide the corporations in a 48:29:23 ratio, respectively.

The committee was asked to complete the exercise within the next two to three months.

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The meeting assumes significance as disputes over appointments, control over corporations and allocation of district funds have periodically created friction among the three partners.

The formula will be applied separately across three categories of corporations classified as A, B and C according to their financial performances. If a corporation is headed by a minister from one party, s/he will have two vice presidents from the other two alliance partners, according to the arrangement.

Sources said Fadnavis told members of the coordination committee to resolve differences at their level and involve the three top leaders only in cases of major disputes.

The committee also discussed the distribution of District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) funds, another source of friction among the alliance partners.

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It was decided that 70 per cent of DPDC funds in a district would be allocated for works proposed by MLAs, and the remaining 30 per cent would be used by the guardian minister after consultations with MLAs.

BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the three parties had also agreed that their leaders and ministers would refrain from publicly criticising one another.

“This is one rule which all three parties will strictly follow in the coming days,” he said.

The committee comprises BJP ministers Bawankule and Girish Mahajan, Shiv Sena ministers Uday Samant, Shambhuraj Desai and Dada Bhuse, and NCP ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Sanjay Khodke and Hasan Mushrif.

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Bawankule also said appointments to 171 state-run corporations will be completed within a month.

In another key decision, the three parties agreed to contest all local body elections, including panchayat polls, jointly. The move comes as the alliance prepares for a series of local elections and seeks to prevent internal competition from spilling into the public domain.