Shiv Sena

Shiv Sena emerges in the book not merely as a political party but as a contested space where the boundaries between the underworld and legitimate power are negotiated, particularly by the women connected to gangsters. For these women, joining the party was a strategic move to gain protection, legitimacy, and a platform for their own ambitions, even as the party's leadership remained wary of their backgrounds. The party's role in the lives of Neeta Naik and Asha Gawli illustrates how political affiliation could be a lifeline for families entangled in crime, offering a shield against police action and a route to social standing that was otherwise unattainable.

A Political Refuge for Gangsters' Wives

The party's significance is most clearly demonstrated through Neeta Naik, the wife of gangster Ashwin Naik. In early 1992, much against her husband's wishes, Neeta decided to join Shiv Sena and stand for municipal elections. Though she considered politics a 'dirty business', she wanted to carve out an identity of her own and was aware that her political clout could be used to legitimise her husband's activities. She won the elections by a huge majority, attributing her victory to her husband, as she knew people voted for her because they feared him. This decision created the first cracks in her marriage, but it also provided her with a new arena in which to operate.

Neeta Naik's Rise Within the Party

With her husband on the run after being shot and rendered wheelchair-bound in 1994, Neeta began enjoying her new-found freedom and made her presence felt in the Shiv Sena, despite the party not being entirely open to recruiting women. Her convent education proved an advantage in her dealings with people, and she made an impact as a powerful orator in the standing committee meetings of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. This political acumen and her connections won her acceptance among the masses and another term in the BMC in 1995. While her sister-in-law Anjali Naik and Asha Gawli also contested the 1995 municipal elections, it was only Neeta who managed to secure a berth in the BMC. With her husband still absconding, Neeta made it clear that the victory was her own and no one else's. Her second term gave her easy access to Sena chief Bal Thackeray at his Matoshree residence in Bandra, further cementing her position within the party.

Asha Gawli's Use of the Party as a Shield

The party's utility as a protective shield is even more starkly illustrated in the case of Asha Gawli, wife of gangster Arun Gawli. In 1996, when Arun was locked up in the Kolhapur jail under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), he mentioned his aspirations to join politics to save himself from a police encounter. The previous year, Asha had stood for the civic corporation elections, hoping her political standing would help her husband, but she had lost terribly. After this, she shifted her focus to her husband's political career. In 1997, with his wife's encouragement and support, Arun started the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, with himself as president and Asha heading the women's wing. It was this women's wing which was used as a shield for the don against arrests and police encounters. A group of women would constantly surround Arun every time he walked out of Dagdi Chawl, a strategy that worked because the cops could neither trace him in the crowd nor get violent with the women, allowing him to escape unscathed on more than one occasion.

The Limits of Political Legitimacy

The party's protection, however, had its limits. A couple of years before the Legislative Assembly elections of 2009, Arun Gawli was again put behind bars, this time under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Asha did not give up. She filed his nomination papers for him and, along with her daughter Geeta, took it upon herself to campaign for him. While Arun spent most of his time as an MLA in jail, Asha worked in the constituency on her husband's behalf, redressing the grievances of the people in the locality and spending money from the gang's resources to ensure they were happy. However, they did not stop to think about one crucial aspect—Arun's own absence. His lack of attendance in the Assembly session hadn't gone unnoticed by political observers, and the people of his constituency voted against him, causing Arun to fail to clinch the MLA post. Despite this defeat, Asha was not a disappointed woman; for her, the very fact that Arun was safe and unharmed by police forces, even after being tried under several stringent laws, still made her a clear winner.

The Party's Ambiguous Stance on Women

The book's portrayal of Shiv Sena reveals a party that was a powerful, if ambivalent, patron. It was a space where women like Neeta could rise to prominence through their own abilities, yet it remained a male-dominated institution that was not entirely open to recruiting women. For the gangsters' wives, the party was a means to an end—a way to protect their husbands, legitimise their activities, and build a public identity. The party's willingness to accept these women, even as it distanced itself from their criminal connections, underscores the deeply intertwined nature of politics and the underworld in Mumbai, where the line between the legitimate and the criminal was often blurred.