Page "Shiv Sena" Paragraph 2

According to Balakrishna the public sector companies in response to Sena's violent pressure, began employing Maharashtrians in large numbers, the company owners didn't object to the Sena entry in to trade unionism since " Thackeray ruled like a dictator, one phone call was enough to ensure peace on the shop floor.

" The party's control over the Mumbai and Thane corporations bolstered the party financially.

According to Balakrishna " as long as the Sena confined its activities to the Mumbai-Thane belt, Congress leaders like Murli Deora, who headed the party unit in Mumbai for two decades, never confronted the Sena ".

The threat to the Congress emerged after 1985, when the party aspired to form a government in Maharashtra.

In 1995, after the 1993 riots in Mumbai in which Balakrishna alleges " Shiv Sena took part ... in a big way ", which saw a polorisation of votes, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, won state assembly elections and formed a government.