Sena shuts door on defecting Cong leaders in search of power

He has warned Chief Minister Manohar Joshi that enough is enough. Leaders of the alliance have been routinely conceding the demand by Congress deserters for plum posts — a small price to pay for breaking the Congress. In fact, virtual melas were held in the districts to celebrate such defections where such rewards were a matter of routine.

But Thackeray’s injunction, according to political observers, coming not a a day too soon has more to it than meets the eye. For last month when Prakash Hire, son of former Maharashtra minister Pushpatai Hire, crossed over to the Sena in Nashik, Sena-BJP workers made a public outcry threatening to bar the entry of every white car with a red revolving light whether it belonged to rebel Congressmen or their own leaders.

The disgruntlement was felt even more sharply when Shambhuraje Desai, grandson, of legendary Congress leader Balasaheb Desai, crossed over last week in Patan in Satara district. Apart from making him the head of a State corporation, CM Joshi announced that he would be given the rank of a Minister of State and would be entitled to a car with a red light. It was the price Desai demanded for switching over.

“They wanted me. I did not approach them. Considering that I bring with me a very successful sugar co-operative, I said I was unwilling to switch sides unless I had a cabinet rank,” Desai told The Indian Express prior to his crossing. However, the Sena-BJP has run out of most such jobs for even its own dissatisfied party workers. So Joshi worked out a compromise for Desai. But Sena workers have brought home to Thackeray that while they are fobbed off with the excuse that there is nothing more to be handed out to partymen, the government nevertheless finds a place for outsiders’.

However, Congressmen unswayed by the lure of the government car seem unimpressed. Accusing Thackeray of playing a dual game, Maharashtra Congress spokesman Ratnakar Mahajan says Thackeray’s “injunction” is a calculated move to generate panic among Congressmen while at the same time seeming to dictate to Joshi. “But those Congressmen who have joined the Sena so far have always been engaged in anti-party activities. Far from the impression sought to be created that Congressmen are queuing up for cars, those who have crossed over are without consequence in their own districts,” says Mahajan. There is a feeling in the party, moreover, that the Sena magnet has sucked away the party rubbish.

And at last Sena workers seem to have caught on. They quote instances of Congressmen accorded little importance in their original party who now dominate either the Government or monopolise Matoshree, Thackeray’s residence. And, strangely, Mahajan’s observation on the ideological commitment of crossing Congressmen has a reflection within the Sena grassroots.

Says one Sena worker, “We worked selflessly for years. Yet all the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council seats go to either non-Maharashtrian new entrants or to Congresswallahs from the rural areas. Many deserving netas from our shakhas have had to remain satisfied with just being deputy leaders of the party. We are committed. But has there been a verification of these crossing Congressmen – do they believe in our goals?” Perhaps not. But the leaders appear not to care in the one-upmanship between the Sena and the BJP in netting the big fish from the Congress. The BJP believes it has the biggest: Udayan Raje Bhosale, recently hooked by Deputy CM Gopinath Munde. Mahajan laughs. “We have his elder brother: (former minister) Abhaysinh Raje Bhosale.” Moreover, the BJP is happy that Udayan did not ask for a car with a red light. His name was considered enough of a guarantee: he is the direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who rode only horses!