Road to Matoshree rife with support, speculation

Unbeknowing to all, Thackeray had something else in mind for Manohar Joshi: something that he wanted talked about not just within the confines of the Rangasharda auditorium, but in the far-reaching pages of Saamna.

But while the rank and file of the Shiv sena were taken aback by Thackeray’s sudden outburst, they couldn’t have asked for more political excitement.

The turn of events saw Sena shakhas across the city organise “urgentmeetings” to discuss the political situation and discuss the need to rally around beleaguered Joshi or Bal Thackeray depending on which camp supporters they were. For 48 hours, telephones of Sena functionaries didn’t stop ringing and the topic of conversation was singular: “What would be Balasaheb’s next move.”

Even veteran Sainiks now well into retirement felt the need to visit the party office to catch up with the latest rumour and to contribute their two bit to the general speculation.

Early this morning street corners and sundry Sena shakhas were the meeting points for Sainiks, ready to leave for Matoshree to “persuade Balasaheb not to step aside.”

En route the conversation centred around the by-now famous interview. One Sena activist setting out for Matoshree from Dadar was heard asking another partyman: “Do you know who is this Raj Dadarkar? Isn’t he the same man wearing a gold chain who was busy making preparations for the CM’s sixtieth birthday function?” Finally, a posse of about 3000Sainiks gathered outside Thackeray’s residence, Matoshree, to meet the leader who later addressed them.

Some of the more senior Sena leaders revealed to this reporter, on the condition of anonymity of course, that they had foreseen these events. “After the election, some senior ministers had gone and complained to Thackeray about Joshi’s indifference to their development programmes,” revealed one of the leaders. But when probed for more details, for instance, the the identity of these ministers, the leader chose to keep mum.

When asked why was Joshi not admonished in private, the Sena leader said: “After all he is Bal Thackeray. He needed to remind the people that he was still the supremo.”

It is another matter altogether that some of his detractors believe that the supremo may be using his remote once too often — all to his detriment. At Matoshree, for instance, one overheard a Sainik muttering to his colleague: “In 1992 when Balasaheb spoke out against Madhav Deshpande 30,000 people hadgathered here. Now it’s just 3,000.”

Thackerayspeak

A two-part interview in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna has created a crisis-like situation in the state government. On the eve of Budget Session the chief minister stands discredited, indicted by his boss – Bal Thackeray. While his statements against the CM have been widely reported, we present here some of Thackeray’s comments on the bureaucracy and the Opposition:

There are major bunglings happening at the tehsildar level. All these (expletive) officers at this level are the people who brought the government into disrepute and that too just before the elections. I am trying to figure out why hutments were razed and pheriwalas were dislocated just days before the polling.