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Journalism of Courage
Starting last Monday, from village to village in Sindhudurg district 500 km south of Mumbai angry sainiks have organised public meetings to rouse support for expelled leader Narayan Tatu Rane 53 who has nurtured the land with development, political wile8212;and some anti-Congress bloodshed8212;since 1990.
8216;8216;Now we are not Shiv Sena workers. We are Narayan Rane supporters,8217;8217; Ashok Sawant, chairman of Sindhudurg8217;s Sena-dominated zilla parishad, with a turnover running into several crores, makes the politics simple and the rebellion out in the open.
Thackeray Sr is saheb but Rane is dada8212;the big brother with a net worth of Rs 7.5 crore whose doors are always open, who has won every assembly election here since 1990.
8216;8216;If I have to choose between Balasaheb and dada, I8217;ll follow dada wherever he goes, even if he joins Sharad Pawar,8217;8217; says farmer Suresh Sawant in Rane8217;s native village Varavade in his constituency Kankavali, 115 km from Goa.
Sawant8217;s statement is significant in this seaside belt of mango, cashew orchards and clearly defined political loyalties where families that vote Congress rarely marry into families that vote for the Sena.
Here Rane8217;s photograph hangs in homesteads, he8217;s swung jobs for thousands of youth. Nearly every house has sent a migrant to Mumbai, and the movement of loyalists from Konkan bucks up Sena8217;s Mumbai footsoldiers.
At the Sena shakha by a Kankavali bus-stop, banners hailing Rane as true leader battle the rain but inside a cutout of Balasaheb dominates.
A retired postmaster walks in, to sign support for Rane from his union of dak workers.
8216;8216;Balasaheb is our God, but Rane is our leader,8217;8217; says Sawant, as the ex-postmaster signs a register. 8216;8216;The word 8216;expulsion8217; has agitated us. Not one sainik will think twice before following Rane. We are waiting for him to decide.8217;8217;
Behind the scenes, the man coordinating the campaign is Rane8217;s Kankavali pointman Rajan Teli with a colourful record of police cases. Teli8217;s cellphone won8217;t stop ringing with calls from the four Konkan districts8212;of which Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg have a stronger saffron grip.
8216;8216;All was well until Balasaheb was leading us,8217;8217; Teli says. 8216;8216;Once Uddhav took over, his assistant Milind interfered too much in seat allocations and anything else. He would not even pass on messages to Uddhav.8217;8217;
IN neighbouring Malwan famed for white beaches and spicy seafood, local Sena leader Datta Samant shares the grapevine that three Sindhudurg MLAs, two Ratnagiri MLAs and one from Raigad want to walk-out with Rane.
8216;8216;If this is how the Sena treats a leader with over three decades of service, what of the common karyakarta?8217;8217; asks Samant, busy organising public meetings in 63 Sena-dominated villages.
Near the Sena shakha in a pokey NCP office, partymen cheerfully watch the upheaval. 8216;8216;If sainiks join us, we8217;ll get their grassroot network on a platter,8217;8217; hopes S Ghadigaonkar, the taluka8217;s NCP chief.
But at Rane8217;s bungalow in Varavade besides the house, petrol pump and hotel in Kankavali mother Laxmi bursts into tears at the injustice to her boy. 8216;8216;He loved saheb more than he loved his family. Now look what they did to him.8217;8217;
The Sena won8217;t forget.
