Tiger takes jumbo's route, chants inclusive mantra

Shiv Sena ties up with party floated by Muslim cleric.

An alliance that could have a long-term impact on not just the state but the nation's politics too, has received Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's nod.

The party will now share power in the Muslim-dominated powerloom town of Malegaon in Northern Maharashtra with the Indian Muslim Congress Party (IMCP), a party floated by local cleric Maulana Mufti Mohammed Ismaile.

The Congress and NCP leaderships tried hard to pressurise IMCP to drop the tie-up plans. On Thursday, the IMCP leaders were supposed to meet Thackeray, but the pressure from the Congress and NCP delayed the meeting and they could not meet Thackeray.

However, they were able to meet senior Sena leaders including Manohar Joshi, Sanjay Raut, Subhash Desai and Ravindra Mirlekar. Under the power-sharing pact, the IMCP will keep the mayor's post and the standing committee's chairmanship, while the Sena will get the post of deputy mayor, said sources in the Sena.

Talking to Business Standard, Raut, who is considered to be most trusted lieutenant of the party's working president Uddhav Thackeray, confirmed that senior Sena leaders had a talk with IMCP leaders.

"Our support is strictly based on the agenda of development, which was also the plank of IMCP in the polls. In the last two decades, the whole town has turned into a large slum, thanks to the influence of Janta Dal (Secular) leader Nihal Ahmad," Raut said.

"Besides, we want to prevent a communal person like Ahmad, who took out a protest march in support of Osma bin Laden few years back, from grabbing power," he added.

"The IMCP people are claiming that they are just religious people and not communal like Ahmad. Also, we are not against Muslims, but only against anti-nationals and terrorists," he said.

Malegaon was a political fiefdom of former JD(S) MLA Nihal Ahmad for more than two decades, between the 1980s and 1990s. It was first challenged by Ahmad's one-time protégé, Rashid Sheikh, in the late 1990s. Sheikh went on to become an MLA on Congress ticket and since then the town has remained in a political flux.

In the municipal elections held on May 27, surprising everyone, the IMCP bagged 26 seats in a House of 72 seats, leaving JD(S) and the Congress far behind at 12 and 5 seats, respectively. The Sena bagged 7 seats, while the rest went to Independents and others.

"For whatever reasons, if Sena is taking a secular stand, then others should welcome it. However, Sena needs to clarify whether this is minority appeasement or mere political compromise to get power or a matured secular politics," said well-known political commentator in the state Kumar Ketkar.

Even before Sena's alliance with IMCP is being finalised, daggers are out in the Congress with state Congress president Prabha Rau indirectly putting the blame of party's poor performance on Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and local party MLA Sheikh.

After the blast in the town last year, had the state government met the demand of handing over the blast probe to CBI immediately, the party's performance would have been much better, she said.

She also blamed the local leadership for wrong selection of candidates and insisting on not having any pre-poll arrangement with secular parties.