In the campaign for the Lok Sabha general elections in April this year, Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray spoke to a rather well-heeled audience at the Radio Club in Colaba about why the party's Arvind Sawant was the best candidate, and aimed verbal arrows at Congress's Milind Deora. Aaditya had finished his speech with, "If the opposite for pro is con, what is the opposite of progress? Congress."

Today, potshots have turned to praise as people look on with disbelief. The Shiv Sena stitched up an alliance with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. Many from the minority communities who have always voted for the Congress, because of its 'secular' plank, seem uneasy at best, bitter at worst about the party allying with the Shiv Sena. The Sena wore the Hindutva ideology on their sleeves.