Not too far away, a group of Shiv Sainiks distributing slips to voters in the bellwether Mumbai South constituency
Sitting on a plastic chair outside the Jam Mill compound at Lalbaug, local Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Choudhari wiped the sweat from his brow. "I have never seen an election like this in my 40 years in politics. It is tough to sense the public mood. This is a wave-less election," he admitted.
Not too far away, a group of Shiv Sainiks distributing slips to voters in the bellwether Mumbai South constituency, where the Sena's Arvind Sawant is defending his seat against Milind Deora (Congress), admit they are fighting a tough battle.
"This election is for electing a stable government and a strong Prime Minister. There is anger against Sawant, but invoking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name will bring in incremental and fence-sitting votes, especially from non-Maharashtrians," claimed a Sena activist from Parel.
Therein lie the rub and the Shiv Sena's political expediency—invoking Modi to sail through in the seat, reputed to be the richest in India, where numbers of non-Marathi speakers are growing gradually. This is despite Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray using the "chowkidar hi chor hai" jibe to attack Modi before the two parties made up.
On polling day in the Maharashtrian working-class 'Girangaon' belt comprising areas like Parel, Lalbaug and Byculla, that are central to the Shiv Sena's plans to hold on to the seat, there is a feeling that Modi and the increasingly influential Gujarati, Marwadi and Jain voters may hold the cards.
This is expedient for the Sena as it is up against an X-factor: the rival Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which has launched a surrogate campaign for the Congress-NCP. Shiv Sainiks grudgingly admit some Marathi voters may be swayed by Raj's pitch, though many MNS supporters may not vote for the Congress.
In his party office at Lalbaug, former MNS MLA Bala Nandgaonkar upbraided a Congress functionary on the phone for not putting up adequate booths to distribute slips to voters.
"The irony is that while the BJP used Balasaheb's name (late Sena chief Bal Thackeray) for votes, now the Sena is banking on Modi," said Nandgaonkar, even as Sanjay Singh, a hardcore Shiv Sainik, said he spent money from his own pocket distributing refreshments to Congress loyalists.
"Why did the Shiv Sena ally with the BJP after criticising it for five years and claiming it would go solo? The Sena voter may not like the Congress, but will vote for it due to the Modi regime's poor economic policies," said Singh, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, but speaks Marathi like a pucca Maharashtrian.
In the Parel-Lalbag belt, where the Congress has no grassroots infrastructure to boast of, Shiv Sainiks like Sanjay Sawant and Amit Tavate claim MNS men manned booths for Deora. "But, they are not doing so with passion. Even MNS workers come to us for refreshments," laughed Tavate.
As this delicate balancing act between Marathi and Hindutva to gain votes of non-Maharashtrians unfolds, a Shiv Sainik from the Currey Road neighbourhood admits to a strong undercurrent of linguistic and cultural animosity between the two communities. "We had non-Maharashtrians here earlier but never faced cultural assertion. We are uncomfortable at calls to make neighbourhoods vegetarian. This has increased since Modi came to power," he claimed.
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