A roaring tiger with menacing eyes is a symbol of the Shiv Sena. But the Sena supremo has the mind of a fox. The BJP leadership is often in awe of Balasaheb Thackeray — not just the state leadership but also the high command. Balasaheb knows this and enjoys outwitting them. So it was no surprise to Balasaheb watchers when he suddenly announced last week that Maharashtra will have ‘only the Shiv Sena pattern’ and not the ‘Modi pattern’. To drill the point home, he declared that not even the ‘Mayawati pattern’ will have any relevance in the state. Actually, he need not have brought Mayawati into this matrix.

There is a method in the matrix. Balasaheb Thackeray’s politics is at once spontaneous and calculated. Indeed, he believes that his ‘intuitive’ responses are ‘divinely strategic’ — whatever he means by that expression. He also claims to have an ‘inner voice’ which, he says directs his political action.

Every year, on the eve of his birthday on January 23, he ritually gives ‘marathon interviews’ to Sena mouthpiece, Samna. It is in this ritualistic interview on his birthday this year, within a week of Narendra Modi’s mammoth rally at Shivaji Park, that Balasaheb effected his sting operation. Shivaji Park is the place where all historic rallies have been held. Pandit Nehru announced the formation of Maharashtra in this very maidan 48 years ago. Indira Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mayawati — all leaders have sought to leave their political imprint on this maidan.

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