MUMBAI, April 11: The future of the Mayor-in-Council Bill appears to have been further blighted today with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray saying in the party mouthpiece Saamna that he was willing to smash the Bill into smithereens if it would facilitate the separation of Mumbai from the rest of Maharashtra.``Mumbai belongs to Maharashtra and Marathi manus and even if 42 generations of the Opposition were to come down, Mumbai can't be separated from Maharashtra,'' the Sena chief said.``Now a days I am aloof from any political development and also desist from giving any political statement but only perform the role of a watchdog. But when it is the question of Mumbai-Maharashtra, I want to assure that we can even scrap the Mayor-in-Council proposal but till Shiv Sena is there in Maharashtra, we won't allow Mumbai to be separated from the State,'' he said.Thackeray blamed the Congress-led Opposition for giving rise to the myth that the Mayor-in-Council Bill stood for the truncation of Maharashtra.However, in view of Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's brief meeting with him yesterday, his statement is being seen as a way out for the Government to backtrack on the issue.Joshi had earlier staked his prestige on the Bill. However, even before Thackeray's doubts were expressed, the Government itself seemed to be having second thoughts by slowing down on its passage through the State Legislature. It also held meetings with the Opposition and agreed to several amendments in the Bill to make it more even keeled in order to safeguard the interests of all sections.This in itself is considered rather unusual for the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance which is not given to consultations and consensus on such contentious issues of its own making.The Bill is slated for discussion in the State Legislative Council on April 16. The Government might move some amendments to the Bill before it is enacted into law. However, in view of Thackeray's statement today, political observers believe that it could even bereferred to a joint select committee where it might eventually be given a quiet burial.
