With Raj Thackeray’s MNS stealing its thunder yet again, the Shiv Sena on Monday found itself in the backseat in the House. When MNS legislators tried to prevent SP’s Abu Azmi from taking oath in Hindi and attacked him physically, the Sena MLAs seemed too stunned to respond immediately.

Initially, the Sena did not want to support the MNS or criticise it. After watching the pandemonium for some time the Sena MLAs started sloganeering against Azmi, with Jogeshwari East MLA Ravindra Waikar and others holding aloft pro-Marathi placards.

The Sena, which has been crying hoarse over the past three years that it is the one that has been fighting for the Marathi cause and that the MNS was a copycat, later tried to salvage the situation. Shiv Sena group leader in the Assembly Subhash Desai called on the MNS to change the rule of the Assembly that enables members to take oath in languages other than Marathi.

But he said the MNS was wrong in manhandling Azmi in the House. “How can one justify the violence in the House?”

Desai added that though the MNS stance regarding the need for legislators to take oath in Marathi was right, the MNS legislators had not objected when Congress MLAs Amin Patel and Rameshsingh Thakur took oath in Hindi and Baba Siddiqui chose English to be sworn in.

“Basically, the state Assembly rule must be challenged,” said Desai, adding that it was not possible for the Sena to rush to the defence of the MNS in the House as they had not been taken into confidence. “They have committed hara kiri,” said Desai, adding that Sena had a much larger social, cultural and economic agenda for the Maharashtrians.

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