Despite Drubbing, Sena Unlikely To Bow Down

Mahesh Vijapurkar

Three distinctly different political surprises emerged in Maharashtra in the recent past. One, Shiv Sena drew an unthinkable blank in the elections to the Panvel municipal corporation, close to which a new airport for Mumbai region is to be built.

Two, the Congress, despite its bad times, took control of Bhiwandi, the powerloom city's civic corporation by securing a majority on its own. Three, in Malegaon, another powerloom city near Nashik saw both Congress and NCP winning enough to share power between them.

Not even Shiv Sena's rivals had dreamt that Sena could get such a drubbing: draw zilch, thought Uddhav and his son, Aditya Thackeray together went on the stunt in Panvel. Panvel is part of the lagte Mumbai metropolitan region as well as Konkan, where historically Sena held sway.

Sena is holding its face, but yet, it does not mean it is the start of its washout. Thought it is a very clear indicator of the reality: the Bharatiya Janata Party decided 51 of the 78 seats. Panvel being newly formed out of the towering nodes in the Navi Mumbai project area gives BJP the first starter advantage.

Congress and NCP gained in Malegaon, and Congress in Bhiwandi, which both happened to be Muslim majority urbanised areas. Both have had seen communal riots decades ago which still rankle. The significant point is that parties like Janata Dal which ruled Malegaon, only has a nominal presence, and Samajwadi which had a strong but abbrasive presence in Bhiwandi is now nowhere in sight.

It is an irony that the subtext of the story has become the stuff of headlines because the roaring tiger was suddenly shown an ignominious perch to sit upon and moan. It has failed to convince voters that it was an alternative to the BJP with which, paradoxically shares power in Maharashtra government but constantly emerges as both quarrelsome and a reluctant bride.

The main story is the way BJP not only nixed the ambitions of Sena in Malegaon, but made inroads in two Muslim towns where it had nothing much to mention about in the past. In Malegaon it scored in nine out of the 84 wards, and inexplicably, Sena which does not pretend affection for the Muslim, walked away with 13. In Bhiwandi too, Sena and BJP respectively secured a precise dozen and 19.

This points to one telling fact: BJP is doing well despite Sena wanting to hurt it. Perhaps the inevitability of getting into the better books of BJP should be its option than trying to destabilise it. But would it? Would it eat its words and cozy up with the frenemy? Sena, you see, does not know how to bow.