Bal Thackeray Blames People for Sena’s Defeat

Following third consecutive defeat of his party, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has blamed the people of Maharashtra for “pushing the state back into hell” by voting the Congress-NCP combine back to power.

In an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna, which expressed party’s shock over its defeat in Assembly polls, Thackeray and the newspaper’s editor wondered what great achievements of the Democratic Front government made people vote for it.

“There was corruption, load-shedding, Maoist terror which killed policemen, suicides of thousands of farmers, Mumbai terror attacks, etc,” Thackeray noted in the editorial.

Thackeray, blaming the people for defeat of Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, said that a naalayak (useless) government was brought back.

He compared the latest elections to the Mahabharata, in which truth tasted final triumph, and said that the only difference between the two is that in this electoral Mahabharata, the Kauravas (untruth) had won.

“If the people re-elect the Narakasura for the third consecutive time, what can we say,” he said.

In addition, Thackeray slammed Congress for following the old British policy of divide and rule and said that the party had split Marathi votes to capture power.

It did not spare even the independents, rebels and the Third Front who were hoping to make it big in case of a hung Assembly, the editorial said. In many cases, it seemed to aid the defeat of good candidates, with the hope that it would benefit in the ensuing “horse-trading”.

“Unfortunately for them, since the Congress-NCP has secured a clear majority, the horses (of this lot of independents, rebels, etc) shall remain in the stables,” Thackeray pointed out sarcastically.

He even ticked off Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athavale, who led the 19-party Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF). Many of the parties could not win a single seat in the October 13 elections.