Losing Bal-ance

Saffron or kesar or crocus sativas is supposed to have amazing medicinal values: it prevents heart disease, build-up of cholesterol, soothes membranes of the stomach and colon. And adds its taste and aroma to any dish you add this to.

The colour saffron is holy for Hindus. And so political parties who claim to fight the Hindu cause wrap themselves in saffron. The Sangh Parivar is often referred to as the saffron parivar. But the values of saffron have obviously not helped the politicos much.

The BJP is fighting a build up of bad cholestrol that's clogging its arteries. And its stomach is churning. Not a day passes when we do not see some signs of verbal diarrhoea. And no amount of soothing of membranes helps, as the next day some Uma, Pramod or Shatrughan suffers from loose emotions.

But the point of this blog is the unbearable lightness of being Bal Thackeray. The self-proclaimed Tiger is tamed by age and the current phase in his life. He loved his son Uddhav and anointed him successor, over Raj the nephew. He lost his right arm and left arm, Chhagan and Narayan, in the process.

But Tiger would hate this day in his life. Narayan is finally, finally, taking away his men from Sena. He's meeting Sonia Gandhi today with 10-11 Sena MLAs. Those 11 include Ramdas Kadam, the leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly.

Shiv Sena lost its first Leader of the Opposition in this Maha Assembly, when Rane went over to the Congress. On October 11, Sena's candidate Kadam was elected the leader of the Opposition. Today Kadam is matching his steps with Rane as he goes into the Congress fold. And once again, Sena will be looking for a leader of the Opposition.

But it won't be easy. The BJP, now weaker than ever and so across the country, would want that post. The Sena-BJP deal has been that whoever has more MLAs gets that post. With Rane taking his team out, the Sena has just 51-52 MLAs left against BJP's 54. BJP naturally would stake a claim. And a frail Sena may give in this time.