Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray (R) with Manohar Joshi during the Sena's 48th Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai
Shiv Sena's senior most leader Manohar Joshi was today booed off the stage at the party's annual Dussehra rally at the iconic Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
A late entrant at the venue, Mr Joshi faced a group of hostile Shiv Sainiks who shouted slogans against him. The 75-year-old leader chose to walk out telling reporters there was no hostility between him and the party workers. "No need to pit me against them," he said.
Two days ago, the Sena veteran and former Lok Sabha speaker had criticised party chief Uddhav Thackeray, hinting that his leadership was not as strong as his father Bal Thackeray's was.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Joshi had said that had the senior Thackeray been alive, the Congress-NCP government that opposed his memorial would have fallen.
While he later met with Uddhav Thackeray, in what appeared to be a damage control bid, the occasion seems to have only further sidelined the once powerful leader.
Mr Joshi's anger could be traced to the fact that the Sena leadership has more or less decided on not fielding the former Maharashtra Chief Minister in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai South Central, an area that was once a party bastion but has been held by the Congress since 2004.
In 2004, Mr Joshi lost to Congress's Eknath Gaikwad who beat the Sena's Suresh Gambhir in 2009 to hold on to the constituency of Dadar-Mahim-Sion -Dharavi areas which consist of several Dalit, Muslim and Marathi voters.
The Sena leadership, sources say, wants to field a younger leader to win back the areas, once considered its stronghold.
Uddhav Thackeray's choice, many say, is Rahul Shewale, the chairman of the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai's civic body that the Sena controls.
Sources say, Mr Shewale, who belongs to the Scheduled Castes, is seen as the candidate who can square the pitch for Mr Gaikwad, a Dalit leader from Dharavi.
Any Sena candidate will also face the might of the Raj Thackeray-controlled Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or MNS, which made huge dents in the former's votebank in the area. In the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, it split the crucial Marathi votes, which helped the Congress.
With so many challenges, the Sena leadership, it seems, feels that the 75-year-old Mr Joshi is not the person for the job.