Bal Thackeray says estranged nephew is Congress minion

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is not in a mood to pardon his nephew and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief, Raj Thackeray, for dividing the Marathi votebank and thereby helping the ruling Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra.

Thackeray senior made a scathing attack on Raj, saying he was a Congress party “minion”. He went on say that instead of a hidden relationship, MNS should now formally tie-up with the Congress party in the 107-member Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in the suburbs, where a hung house has emerged.

Thackeray also criticised what he termed an ugly exhibition of money power during the elections and questioned how a party only four years old (without directly naming MNS) could spend Rs 60 crore on the elections.

The Sena has blamed the MNS for the KDMC outcome. Raj’s party contested all 107 seats but won only 27. However, by splitting the vote which would have gone to the Sena, it helped restrict the latter to only 31; the Sena’s BJP ally got only nine. The saffron alliance lost 45 seats it had in the previous house. The Congress party could win only 15 of the 55 it had contested, while its alliance partner, the NCP, bagged 14 of the 52 it fought. In all, 11 independents have won.

This is the third time since the middle of last year that the MNS has spoilt the Sena’s quest for significant power in the state. In last year’s Lok Sabha election, it split the anti-Cong plus NCP vote, restricting the Sena-BJP to 20 of the 48 seats. Then, in the state assembly polls, the MNS won 13 seats, while the Congress and NCP successfully weathered an anti-incumbency wave to jointly win 144 seats in the 288-member legislature. The Sena came a poor fourth.

Taking on Raj’s claim that his party would play a key role in deciding who;d be mayor in the KDMC, the Sena chief said his combine would win that poll. He thanked the voters of Kalyan and Dombivli, while blaming the press for painting a negative picture of the SS-BJP rule during the run up to the elections.