“Vasantrao Naik was using Bal Thackeray to knock out the Communists from Bombay as they were particularly strong in the unions in those days,” said retired police officer Julio Ribeiro, who was posted to Mumbai at the end of 1968.

“They did not realize they were unleashing a tiger that went on to become more powerful than the people trying to use him,” he said. “The Communist workers were mostly lumpen elements who switched sides to the Shiv Sena and were allowed to loot and run amok.”

Although this time around, Deshmukh has not been accused of encouraging Raj, his hesitation to act soon and nip the MNS campaign in the bud is being attributed to a weak Chief Minister’s fear of losing his job if the move backfired and sparked largescale violence.

Besides, there were inevitable vote-bank calculations as well.

“Raj was ultimately seen as eating into the ranks and file of the Shiv Sena, weakening it,” said a senior state Congress committee member, adding that the government was forced to arrest him due to the national outrage and “media pressure”.

However, whether the political mileage he has earned now will get converted into electoral mileage will only be known next year when the state is due to elect a new assembly, they said.

Meanwhile, Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party, who faced similar charges like Raj, was also arrested from his Colaba home and granted bail by a magistrate’s court in Bhoiwada after furnishing a bond of Rs 10,000. (with inputs from Rakshit Sonawane)