There's a steady line of shakha pramukhs (local party unit chiefs) from the Raj Thackeray drawing-room at Dadar’s Shivaji Park—the heart of the Shiv Sena’s Maharashtrian mass base—where the party’s political fate hangs between sinking and survival.A day after Bal Thackeray’s charismatic nephew Raj dramatically quit his party posts, the sainiks outside his home were subdued but fearlessly and openly critical of the party’s mismanaged past that has now torn it between two cousins.‘‘Raj is the only leader who can protect the Marathi identity,’’ said Jeetendra Janawale, who resigned as Santacruz shakha pramukh on Sunday soon after Raj quit party posts. ‘‘I am still Balasaheb’s sainik. But I want the Sena to survive.’’At Balasaheb’s residence Matoshree in Bandra, another set of shakha pramukhs, sainiks and leaders—like Manohar Joshi, Ramdas Kadam—were lining up. Suryakant Mahadik, president of the Bhartiya Kamgar Sena—its office was ransacked by Raj supporters on Sunday—met Balasaheb.‘‘Thackeray told us to continue work as before. The dispute is between two brothers and Balasaheb will decide,’’ Mahadik said, adding that the Kamgar Sena had vouched support to the Sena.But until recently, it was unthinkable for a sainik to openly criticise party leadership. Raj’s Sunday speak-up has changed that at Dadar, where Raj pin-ups hang from trees and on cars.‘‘Sena is drifting away from being a cadre-based party,’’ said Tushar Aphale (35), member of the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS)—the party’s youth wing and Raj’s baby—with over five lakh registered members in Maharashtra.‘‘Whenever Raj tried to take Sena back to its roots, they stopped him.’’In the lobby next to the drawing-room where Raj met supportive shakha pramukhs Yashwant Killedar (34), member of the Mumbai University senate as a registered graduate, said that Sunday’s mob outburst by Raj supporters was ‘‘a natural reaction after years of pent-up anger.’’ Angry sainiks had overturned a Skoda belonging to Sanjay Raut—close aide of Sena president and Raj’s cousin Uddhav—after Raj resigned.‘‘Rajsaheb’s resignation has erupted after eight-ten years of being suppressed. His youth leadership qualities were underutilised,’’ said Killedar, who joined the BVS in junior college.‘‘There would be orders from the top stopping leaders from attending youth wing functions that Raj attended,’’ said Prashant Kadam, a sainik since 15 years. ‘‘We as Raj’s supporters were discriminated against in shakhas. There were attempts to make BVS programmes unsuccessful.’’Uddhav said on Sunday that Raj’s resignation speech sounded uncannily similar to previous rebel and Konkan strongman Narayan Rane who grabbed the Malwan constituency from the Sena in this month’s byelection.And sainiks are still getting over the Rane exit. ‘‘If Raj was the leader, Rane would have never left the Sena,’’ said Aphale. ‘‘We all want Raj to be leader.’’
