Sena tunes up to march to Elections `98

MUMBAI, January 20: It's poll time, folks! Time for slogans, speeches and... music! And if spoofs of Hindi film numbers be the spice of elec...

MUMBAI, January 20: It’s poll time, folks! Time for slogans, speeches and… music! And if spoofs of Hindi film numbers be the spice of election campaigns, then, the Shiv Sena is well, playing on, picking up from where it left off during the last campaign.

Sa Re Ga Na Shiv Sena — the audio cassette released by Sena chief Bal Thackeray in Kolhapur on Sunday — begins with a brief commentary by singer Sudesh Bhosle doing his trademark Amitabh Bachchan parody. He holds forth on how the elections were forced on the country by the Congress and the United Front, going on to assure listeners that the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance will provide a stable government in the Centre.

The first song, set to Sandese aate hain from Border, is Congress se aate hain, Bhajapa jate hain — an attack on Congress leaders defecting to the BJP. The second song is based on Aasha Bhosle’s popular Hindi pop number Jaanam Samjha Karo, “reminding” voters that the Congress is responsible for the sorry plight the nation finds itself in. Laloo Prasad Yadav and wife Rabri Devi are clearly popular targets with not one, but two songs, dedicated to them — based on Akhiyan Tu Milale Raja and Shahar Ki Ladki — and contain pointed references to the fodder scam as well as the size of their family.

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For the party’s arch rival in the state, Sharad Pawar, and his nephew Ajit Pawar, is a doleful number based on Chhod Ayen Ham Woh Galiyan, from the film Maachis, which fantasises about a lonely Pawar on the bylanes of Baramati. Definitely not music to the Maratha strongman’s ears.

And last but not the least, dedications to Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul. Based on Pardesi Pardesi Jana Nahin and Oh Baby, Don’t Break My Heart advise Sonia and her children to keep away from “Indian politics”.