Once unforgiving of ‘gaddars’ & ‘backstabbers,’ party learned to live with rebels

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has had its own band of rebels. However, barring biggies such as Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray, none could sting like a bee, though they did float like butterflies and grabbed headlines from time to time.
The first Sena leader to clash with Balasaheb Thackeray was Hemchandra Gupte. The wellknown medico from Mahim was livid when Thackeray issued a ‘fatwa’ to his corporators to vote for the Congress’ Murli Deora in the 1975 BMC mayoral election.Gupte left the Sena in a huff and joined the Janata Party. Dattaji Pradhan too had a quiet exit, while Bandu Shingre formed a ‘Prati’ (parallel) Shiv Sena, which turned out to be a damp squib.
Bhujbal’s revolt marks a watershed in the Sena’s chequered history for two reasons. First, he took away several Sena MLAs with him and joined the Congress in December 1991. Second, his rebellion had sharp political overtones as it brought to the fore the upper casteOBC feud in the Sena at a time north India was caught in the reservation blaze following the Mandal report. Bhujbal, who belongs to the OBC community, wanted the Sena to back caste-based quotas, while Thackeray was opposed to it. Also, Bhujbal had begun to resent Manohar Joshi’s growing clout--Joshi is a Brahmin--in Matoshree.
Bhujbal’s exit from the Sena cleared the decks for Rane’s meteoric rise. Having begun as a ‘shakha pramukh’ in Chembur in the 1980s, Rane became the Sena-BJP’s chief minister in February 1999.
However, with the CongressNCP winning the next te assembly election, Rane became the Opposition leader. He defected to the Congress in 2005 and was sworn in as minister. Soon, he launched a vicious campaign against Uddhav Thackeray, while reiterating his faith in Balasaheb’s leadership.
The ruling clique at Matoshree came under a cloud for the first time following the Bhujbal-Rane revolt, say party veterans. “Any Sena leader with an independent mind and a decent following is targeted by the clique. The standard practice is to start a whisper campaign that the leader in question is going to turn a rebel. When the aggrieved leader tries to put across his side of the story, the clique sees to it that he doesn’t get access to the Thackerays. This is what happened in the case of Bhujbal and Rane,” said a party functionary.
This exactly was Raj Thackeray’s grouse when he quit the Sena and floated the MNS in March 2006. He accused Uddhav of letting a caucus rule the organisation. Raj’s revolt, preceded by a prolonged succession battle between Uddhav and Raj, deeply upset Balasaheb as it marked a divide right in the Thackeray clan.
Ganesh Naik, one-time Sena stalwart from Navi Mumbai, bade a quiet good-bye to the Thackerays and joined NCP. So did Satish Pradhan, the Sena’s genial face in Thane in the party’s formative years. Sanjay Nirupam, Sena MP in Rajya Sabha, resigned in 2007, thanks to the caucus, it is said, and joined the Congress. But no stones were hurled at his apartment by Sainiks, nor was his effigy set aflame. Well, the Sena has learnt to live with dissent.