If there is one result in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly election that indicates a waning in Balasaheb Thackeray's popularity among the 'Marathi Manoos' and their increasing preference for Raj Thackeray, it is the Kalina Assembly segment in the city.
Here, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had put up Balasaheb Thackeray's lawyer, Dinanath Tiwari, a north Indian against another north Indian, Kripashankar Singh of the Congress. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's candidate was Chandrakant More, a 'Marathi Manoos'.
The saffron combine suffered a humiliating loss with Tiwari losing his deposit, managing to poll a measly 14,000 votes while More of the MNS bagged around 39,000 votes, coming second behind Kripashankar Singh.
The Samajwadi Party trailed behind Tiwari closely, pulling in 11,000 votes.
Kripashankar Singh is the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president, and polled over 51,000 votes.
That Tiwari represented Thackeray in legal cases has apparently cut no ice with the 'Marathi Manoos' who preferred Raj Thackeray's candidate to Tiwari.
Tiwari has successfully fought cases relating to the Sena mouthpiece – Saamana, of which Thackeray is the executive editor. He has also represented several other Shiv Sainiks in cases relating to agitations, sit-ins, among others.
Tiwari, hailing from the holy town of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, has also represented Sena's Rajya Sabha member, Sanjay Raut and Hindi Saamana's editor, Prem Shukla, in legal cases.
That the MNS bagged around 39,000 votes is a clear pointer to which way the 'Marathi Manoos' is tilting, especially in the metropolis where the MNS scored major gains.
The three-year-old MNS captured 13 seats in Maharashtra, the majority of them from the Mumbai-Nashik belt.
"My loss has nothing to do with Marathi Manoos," Tiwari, putting up a brave face, told PTI. He, however, admitted that the election showed "the younger generation getting attracted towards MNS."
Tiwari's loss shows that Balasaheb Thackeray's charisma is beginning to fade and the younger generation amongst the 'Marathi Manoos' now clearly prefers his nephew, Raj Thackeray.
Perhaps, Tiwari's loss is the clearest indication that the reign of the tiger is over and that now it is the turn of the cub-turning-into-a-tiger to roar.
