Trading horses than run

GB road, Thane is a growing suburb of Mumbai. GB stands for Ghodbunder – its literal translation means Port of horses. While driving through the area as a kid, my father would point out to a hillock by the creek where horses were traded during festive season from 16th – 19th century. He would then go on to explain the trading trick of holding hands under a cloth to press fingers indicating price for the stud. I always thought this as horse trading at its best.

Centuries later, not too far away horse trading takes place with higher stakes and bigger traders. As the Municipal elections come close, parties have nose-dived into poaching leaders from each other. The saffron brigade drew first blood when Shive Sena welcomed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators and a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). To add insult to injury, when NCP founder and president sent across a white flag seeking moral higher grounds, the Saffron supremo shot down the offer suggesting it was his son and the executive president who presided over these issues.

Hurt, disgusted and revengeful the old farmer from Baramati summoned his local satrap for action. What transpired then was mystery and its result has made history. A saffron torchbearer, one who was a thoroughbred sought asylum in the shades of NCP giving similar reasons as echoed by Raj Thackeray in 2007 when he left the party.

Standing at a distant corner during the press conference I saw Sharad Pawar smile resonated an image from Sarkar Raj. In the penultimate scene of the movie, Amitabh Bacchan explains to Aishwarya Rai the labyrinth of conspiracies bound around his power house. The antagonist Rao Saheb, played by veteran Marathi actor Dilip Prabhawalkar is exposed as Sarkar figures out the plot.

This isnt the first time, poaching took place in Maharashtra politics, it certainly wouldn’t be the last time. But what stood out this time around was the vengeful venom that went into each bite that the two parties took at each other. Strangely, Ajit Dada had nothing to do with this deflection; while Supriya Sule and Sameer Bhujbal were happy to stay away from the limelight. The only gain from this development is to Jitendra Awad, NCP’s MLA from Kharegaon-Mumbra belt, who has emerged as a horse trader himself