Click to play videoMumbai: Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane's exit was believed to have dealt near fatal twin body blows to the Shiv Sena until they bounced back with a thumping victory in the 2007 BMC elections on Friday.
While the Tiger is still roaring - the cubs have been left licking their wounds.
The celebrations that began outside Bal Thackeray ‘Matosrhee’ residence told the story for a party, which was being written off only weeks ago this was a turn around of sorts.
Predictably the heroes for the Shiv Sena were the father-son duo of Bal and Udhav Thackeray especially Udhav who had taken responsibility for the party's campaign.
Manohar Joshi said, “Tendulkar and Udhav are the same. One is in cricket the other is in politics. "
By contrast the Congress headquarters outside the Bombay municipal corporation wore a deserted look.
It was clear that the break in the Congress-NCP alliance had benefited the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.
But instead of accepting their failure the NCP and Congress were busy blaming each other for the breakdown in ties.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said, "We tried for 10 days to form an alliance. If we would have gone together thing would have been different. We did try for that."
While electoral arithmetic benefited the BJP-Sena alliance, the Raj Thackeray factor did not seem to damage the Sena to the extent it had been imagined.
In the traditional middle class Maharashtrian areas the original Sena bastion the Sena managed to retain its hold.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said, “The Marathi vote consolidated because Bal Thackeray made an emotional appeal to the Maharashtrains. But we failed in galvanizing the North Indian voters."
The other big loser - Chief Ministerial aspirant Narayan Rane, the man who had hoped to use a victory in Mumbai to stake claim to a higher office. By the end though it was the Sena, which Rane had deserted that had reason for hope.
This is clearly the season for comebacks, whether in politics or in cricket. For Udhav Thackeray, the man who was written off by one and all, the municipal elections have given him a second lease of life.
With the Sena likely to be once again in power at the country's richest civic body, it’s the Congress-NCP alliance, which will have to ask itself some searching questions.
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