According to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, some 600 villages in Maharashtra don’t have electricity and thousands of villages don’t get clean drinking water. He says water conservation in drought-affected areas can help farmers tide over agrarian crisis, and he is out to help these people using the party’s platform. This will be the Sena’s unique way of celebrating the party’s golden jubilee this year.

Thackeray deserves heartiest compliments for working in the right direction, but the manner in which he is executing this plan speaks a lot about the differences between his party and the BJP, the major partner in the state government.