23 October 2009,
MUMBAI: The Congress Party, which has often been accused of promoting the Shiv Sena against the 1970s’ Communist-led trade unions in Mumbai, has put the genie back in the bottle. The Thursday poll results show that the Sena has been relegated to the fourth position in legislative assembly.
Worse, the BJP has bagged more seats than the Sena and the latter will have to face the ignominy of giving up the office of the leader of the opposition in favour of its poll ally. However, the unkindest cut is that the Raj Thackeray-led MNS has won six assembly seats in Mumbai, two more than the Sena’s single-digit tally of four, while the Congress has won 17 seats.
The MNS gave a body blow to the Sena by annexing Parel and Dadar, the two Thackeray bastions since the 1960s. Little wonder that Matoshree wore a desolate look on Thursday.
Clearly, the Sena has lost its 40-year long suzerainty over Mumbai, the city which Bal Keshav Thackeray could bring to a halt at the click of his remote control.
If that were not all, his estranged nephew’s fledgeling party, the MNS, is quietly worming its way into the city’s underbelly.
Several factors have contributed to the Sena’s decline, say political observers.
First, as principal Opposition party for nearly a decade, the Sena failed to make an impact in the Vidhan Sabha. Chhagan Bhujbal, the lone Sena MLA in the 1990s, could give tough moments to the treasury benches with his acerbic speches and a bit of histrionics.
However, over 50 Sena legislators in the 2004 assembly couldn’t grill the Congress-NCP ministers on farmers’ suicides and load-shedding.
“The Sena has lost its bite. Earlier, Balasaheb Thackeray used to lead popular agitations and Shiv Sainiks used to pour out on the streets and suffer laathi blows himself from policemen. Now, a Sena agitation is more like a marriage procession,’’ lamented a Sena corporator.
Stories of how Sena MLAs, vibhag-pramukhs and corporators have close ties with builders and fly-by-night civic contractors also keep doing the rounds in ‘shakhas’.
Also, the grassroots Sainiks are baffled by the shift in the Sena’s stance under Uddhav Thackeray’s captaincy—from agitational politics to peaceful satyagraha-type demonstrations. “The party has been turned into a sarva seva sangh,’’ the coroprator added wryly.
Uddhav’s moderate style of functioning may have gone down well with the Sainiks in the course of time had the Sena scion been accessible to party workers.
“But unfortunately, Uddhav-ji has failed to erase the popular impression that he is surrounded by a powerful clique which uses him as a pliant tool,’’ said a former Sena minister.
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