Thackeray begins shadow boxing

MUMBAI: It���s like shooting in the air. The ageing Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray wants to oppose a government plan that doesn���t exist.

Addressing the much-publicised election rally that was expected to pump in the much needed adrenaline into the Sena camp, Mr Thackeray ended up raising the issue of Mumbai being separated from Maharashtra. ���There is a conspiracy to separate the city from Maharashtra, and it would not be tolerated. The city will burn if it is taken away from Maharashtra,��� he said at Mumbai rally.

Political observers feel this as a last and desperate attempt by the Sena patriarch to revive the declining morale and fortune of his ravaged party. The Sena has always chanted the ���sons of soil��� mantra to reach out to its constituency, which of late has been shrinking rapidly due to a variety of reasons ��� Mumbai���s widening cosmopolitan base being one of them.

Whenever in trouble, the Sena has given the call to save Mumbai from being axed from the state. It first worked in 1985 when the then chief minister Vasantdada Patil, a veteran Congressman, too joined the Sena in the ���Save Mumbai��� campaign. Since then, Sena has seen raising the issue during elections to mobilise support. The February 1 election is no different.

���Any proposal to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra will be met with stringent opposition,������ Mr Thackeray said even though he didn���t have any details of the controversial proposal. He also obliquely indicated that the city���s elite want to see Mumbai as a Union Territory or a separate state.

���Let them even try to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and we will give them a fitting reply. One hundred and five martyrs, mostly mill workers, had sacrificed their lives for the cause of keeping Mumbai as part of Maharashtra and we will not let it go to waste,��� he said.

���It is due to the mill workers of Parel and Lalbaug who came on to the streets that Mumbai is today a part of Maharashtra,��� he added. Senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi, too, alleged in his speech that the state reorganisation commission, which was recently announced, was nothing but a conspiracy to separate Mumbai.

Mr Thackeray pledged to his supporters that the Sena would win in Mumbai, Thane and Nashik yet again. ���In Maharashtra, only Marathis can rule,��� he said. ���No one can dare to break Mumbai from Maharashtra. Nobody can dare to finish the Sena,��� he said. As a Congress leader put it, the Sena needs an illusionary devil to whip up regional passions.