The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra are repenting at leisure for not marrying in haste. The existing alliance at the state level, if replicated at the local level for the civic polls, would have trounced the saffron combine and sent the Shiv Sena back to its lair for a while. The last was even half-prepared for that eventuality, given the breakaway of Mr Narayan Rane, the family feud with Mr Raj Thackeray that split the party, and the failing health of the patriarch, Mr Bal Thackeray. That the party, together with its old ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, turned its disadvantages into its assets says as much for its resilience as for its opponents’ refusal to learn from experience. While the Congress and the NCP squabbled over seats, the Shiv Sena got to work by boldly experimenting with new faces, by pressing into service its famed foot-soldiers and by re-asserting its timeless appeal to Marathi sentiment. The result has surpassed expectations. The Shiv Sena has not only retained its decade-old control over Brihanmumbai municipal corporation, but has also wrested from the Congress the Nagpur municipality. The victory establishes Mr Uddhav Thackeray as the undisputed inheritor of the Sena legacy, and thus assures the party an extended political life.

It is impossible to write off either the Congress or the NCP as complete losers. With its 275 seats, the former is still the largest party in the state. And the NCP, though failing to improve on its previous tally, has had surprise performances, as in Pune. In their better senses now, the two are presently striving hard to form a post-poll alliance to gain control of municipalities in Pune, Sholapur, Amravati and others. But the bonhomie is unlikely to last long. The Congress sees the NCP as a poacher on its political territory, and not unjustifiably, if one keeps in mind the circumstances of the latter’s birth and its overpowering ambitions. The bad blood may continue to flow and blind the two to the advantages that can be gained from a common political will. The saffron wave in Maharashtra is weakening, as can be evinced from the fall in the combine’s seats from 140 to 111 this time. That an anti-saffron combine can show the Hindu right the door was obvious from the Congress-NCP’s resounding win in Akola, where the alliance worked. Unfortunately, those who can make the difference in Maharashtra, and elsewhere, refuse to look beyond their noses.