The Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray has said that he was “astonished” by the victory of the SS-BJP alliance in Mumbai. Narayan Rane, the Sena strongman who joined the Congress and became its militant leader, has said that the SS-BJP victory is entirely because of senior Congressmen working against their own party. Raj Thackeray has said that the victory could be attributed to Balasaheb’s charisma and his emotional appeal to voters. Sharad Pawar’s followers have said that failure of the Congress and the NCP to form a front has brought the SS-BJP alliance to power in Mumbai. The Congress leadership in Mumbai believes that the treachery by the NCP led to the saffron victory. Pundits say that the third front dented the dalit and Muslim vote banks of the Congress. The witch-hunt will continue for some more time.

But Mumbai’s choices cannot be superimposed on the whole of Maharashtra. There were ten other cities where municipal elections were held last week. When one looks at the whole canvas, the picture is fractured. There is indeed saffron dominance in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur. Yet one must understand that Mumbai has always behaved differently than the rest of Maharashtra. There is little in common, politically speaking, between Mumbai and Maharashtra. Sena often sees ghosts and imagines conspiracies of separating Mumbai from Maharashtra. Ironically, it does not have much clout in the rest of Maharashtra. The municipal results show this. The point is the verdict in the whole state is not uniform. The saffronites have lost as many as 112 seats across the state and the two Congresses have gained.

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