THE SNP leadership race has become a fight over whether to share power with the Greens, after one of the candidates said her party was being "held hostage" by the junior coalition partner.
Former minister Ash Regan, who quit over Green-backed gender reforms last year, said: "We can't have a situation where the tail is wagging the dog."
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, whose opposition to same sex marriage has infuriated the Greens, also attacked one of the smaller party's key projects.
She said that if she were first minister she should would pause and review the troubled bottle recycling scheme being led by Green Minister Lorna Slater.
She told the Scottish Mail on Sunday there was a "wave of concern" among businesses worried about extra costs and she wanted to "sense check" policies for their effect on the economy.
Her criticism was given added force yesterday by Ms Slater floating a big change to the scheme hours before a critical deadline.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf backed her idea, then later made a continued alliance with the Greens a key plank of his campaign to replace Nicola Sturgeon.
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He said he was the only one of the three candidates who could keep the pact together, warning a return to minority government meant "significant challenges".
Mr Humza, who yesterday picked up the support of former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford and current deputy Mhairi Black, insisted his campaign was going "really well".
However a Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times put Ms Forbes in the lead, with 23 per cent of voters wanting her in charge, 15% for Mr Yousaf and 7% for Ms Regan.
Ms Forbes also had the highest performance rating, with 31% saying she was doing a good job against 17% saying a bad job, a score of +14, with Ms Regan on +3.
Mr Yousaf, whose record on the NHS is constantly criticised at Holyrood, was minus 16.
His enthusiastic support for the Greens, the SNP's rivals for pro-independence votes on the Holyrood list, may well be a tricky sell to the party's grassroots.
With 64 MSPs to the seven of the Greens, there was no compulsion on Ms Sturgeon to strike a joint government pact with the smaller party in August 2021.
A confidence and supply deal means ministers no longer face no-confidence votes from a united opposition, and the annual Budget haggling has been much smoother.
But many SNP members resent the influence of a party with no constituency MSPs and dislike being associated with their opposition to economic growth.
The presence of the Greens has also hurt the SNP in the north-east because of the former's opposition to North Sea oil and gas.
Appearing on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show, Ms Regan said the Greens had too much power in the Scottish Government.
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She said: "We can't have a situation where the tail is wagging the dog. The SNP got 45% of the vote at the last election and the Greens only got 4%. So we can't be held hostage by that situation.
"There is a perception out there in society that the government is not prioritising things that are of importance to the people of Scotland. I think that's out there.
"I want to re-prioritise on to the things that the people in Scotland think are really important, things like the NHS, the cost-of-living crisis and the economy."
But speaking to activists in Aberdeen later, Mr Yousaf, who is also the only candidate who would keep the gender reforms passed by MSPs last year and then vetoed by London, was emphatic about maintaining the SNP-Green deal.
He said: "I believe I am the only candidate that can preserve the pro-independence majority in parliament; I think that has become clear from statements.
"I think it is vital. I think in the polarised discourse we see at the moment in our politics, coming into leadership and immediately taking us into minority government would be full of some really significant challenges."
Losing a parliamentary majority would make it difficult for the SNP "to get our legislative programme over the line", he added.
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