Violence may affect Sena's fortunes

The act of vandalism by Shiv Sena activists after the desecration of a bust of Meenatai Thackeray, late wife of Sena chief Bal Thackeray, is being seen as a desperate attempt by the party leadership to send the message down its cadre that the party is still alive and kicking.

However, the Sena's act of vandalism has not gone down well with the masses and will adversely impact the party's prospects in the civic elections scheduled for early next year, feel political observers.

In the late eighties, a Sena corporator from Thane, Shreedhar Khopkar, was murdered after he allegedly cross-voted in favour of the Congress candidate during a mayoral election.

Then former Deputy Chief Minister Chaggan Bhujbal was literally on the run after he defected to the Congress in early nineties. This was the terror of Sena's muscle and street power.

However, despite party's senior leaders like Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray deserting the party, Sena could not do anything against these leaders, except using some harsh words from public platforms, as majority of the party's cadre also went with these two leaders.

Ever since then, the Sena leadership was waiting for an opportune moment to flex its muscle. This opportunity was first presented by the riots at Bhiwandi between the police and a mob of minority community, and then the discretion of Meenatai's bust.

A senior Congress leader who has defected from Sena, observed, "Had it been really an old Sena style agitation, then Mumbai would have come to a grinding halt. But everything returned to normalcy within few hours. This shows the Sena really now lacks the street power, which has always been a source of strength for this party."

Well-known political commentator Kumar Ketkar felt that "it was a sham attempt by the Sena leadership to galvanise the party cadre, as the so-called agitation lacked any spontaneity and hardly any Sena activist was on the streets, only gangs of few goons, which came out on the streets to take advantage of the situation."

He further said, "Yesterday's incidents will only have an adverse impact on Sena's already dwindling fortune in the forthcoming elections to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM)."

Though Sena-BJP combine today was successful in stalling the proceedings of the State Assembly, but they could not force the adjournment before combative Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil gave befitting replies to charges levelled by the saffron combine leaders.

Warning the Sena leadership, Patil said, "Information which has come out of preliminary investigation can put many bigwigs in trouble and during the investigation, all aspects like who stands to gain most from yesterday's incidents, will be probed."

However, yesterday's incidents have also brought out the rift in the ruling Congress-NCP combine. State revenue minister Rane told the news channels: "Yesterday's incidents were well-orchestrated and unfortunately some sections of the government helped Sena in achieving its objective."

It is widely believed that Rane's remarks were directed against Patil and Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who by asking the police to maintain restrain, gave a kid glove treatment to Sena activists who were on the rampage.

Supporting Rane's theory, Maharashtra Navanirman Sena president Raj Thackeray said, "These so-called agitations have taken place only at the places which are going to have civic polls early next year".

He was speaking to reporters after garlanding Meenatai's statue at Shivaji Park. He, however, expressed apprehension that defacing of the bust might be part of a larger conspiracy to create law and order problem in the state.

Meanwhile, Sena activists burnt the effigies of Rane for suggesting that the conspiracy to deface the statue and the subsequent protest were organised by the Sena leadership itself.