Cousinly power play

The Thackeray cousins Shiv Senas working president Uddhav and Maharashtra Navnirman Senas chief Raj are competing...

The Thackeray cousins Shiv Senas working president Uddhav and Maharashtra Navnirman Senas chief Raj are competing with each other to play messiahs of the locals. The Sena had scored a point in July when it hit the streets and forced the state to direct the power regulator to stay the power tariff hike of Reliance Infrastructure in Mumbais suburbs. Subsequently,three weeks ago,the regulator okayed a hike in the tariff of MahaVitaran (state power utility) which mainly supplies power outside Mumbai. Five days after the announcement,Raj took up the issue of sops being approved by the regulator for malls,multiplexes,etc under the cross-subsidy exercise,while domestic consumers were charged higher rates. The state had to intervene again and stay the sops enabling Raj to score a point. The catch is that Raj took up the issue after a report on the sops to malls published by Marathi daily Prahaar,founded by former Sena leader-turned Congress minister Narayan Rane.

Chavan plays it safe

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had to prove his worth in a short period as he had to compete for space with former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh,as both belong to the Marathwada region. Unsure of getting another term as CM,he smartly approved the setting up of another regional headquarters at his hometown Nanded,instead of Deshmukhs hometown Latur as planned earlier. Now he has to steer the Congress to victory in the Assembly polls,for which he has resorted to a ceasefire with the state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre (from the Deshmukh camp). Chavans decision to put on hold multi-crore infrastructure projects,including the Mantralaya makeover is believed to be a play-safe gesture. The reason: very high stakes involved in the projects that may benefit the NCP more than the Congress.

Settling old scores

When some MNS leaders like Shweta Parulkar,Prakash Mahajan and Sanjay Ghadi switched over to the Shiv Sena in recent months,a jubilant Uddhav Thackeray said that leaders had stopped going out and were coming in instead. His euphoria did not last long. Former Sena leader and now a Congress minister Narayan Rane engineered the defection of three Sena MLAs Manik Kokate,Vinayak Nimhan and Rajendra Raut to the Congress and said that the outflow had not stopped.