A day after the Assembly poll verdict, the Shiv Sena blamed young voters and the Congress for dividing Marathi votes and delivering a setback to the party. In its editorial published on Friday, the Sena mouthpiece Saamna posed this question: “Who has really won?”

There has been no comment yet on the party’s performance by executive president Uddhav Thackeray or his father and party supremo Bal Thackeray.

“The younger generation does not seem to know how the Shiv Sena has struggled for Maharashtra — only the 105 martyrs of Hutatma Chowk may know,” the party stated. “Shiv Sena's defeat is a crater dug for the Marathi people.”

“They have won by dividing Marathi votes as per the British policy of divide and rule,” the party said. “What great work has the Congress-NCP (alliance) done in the past five-ten years that the people have re-elected them?”

Lamenting that in the “Mahabharat of elections, the Kauravas, not the Pandavas, had won”, the Sena said that it would preserve the flowers of defeat. “From these flowers there will be sparks tomorrow and Maharashtra will get ignited... We have seen several ups and downs... digested defeat and again hoisted the flag of victory. But we won't shed tears,” the party said.

The Sena reaction comes after its poor performance in the Assembly polls. The party won only 44 seats as against 63 in 2004.