Politics makes for implausible bedfellows, goes the saying. And so do Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi and industries minister Narayan Rane, with the Congressman clearly choosing his enemy’s enemy as his friend.

Rane yesterday emanated a wave of sympathy for his former foe Joshi, while coming down heavily on the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for the badgering meted out to Joshi at the Sena’s Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, where angry party men heckled him till he left the venue. There was no perceptible attempt from Uddhav to pacify the crowds.