[fingolfin]The BJP got voted in only now because there was severe anti-incumbency against the Congress in Maharashtra which had been ruling the roost for a long time there. Some time back Naveed, I think you had posted a political map of India with large parts of it colored saffron representing the BJP ruled states. Well, only months before that, that entire area was blue for the Congress. They voted in the BJP because they really are the only alternative in many states and aligning yourself with the center is considered prudent politics although my state(Karnataka) for some reason thinks the opposite.
Why the Shiv Sena has a strong presence in Mumbai is also puzzling given how cosmopolitan the city is. They thrive on the politics of hatred and negativity. just for some context, their target in the 70's were South Indians(of all shades, but especially Tamilians) who were doing well there in white collar jobs as well as in the Mumbai underworld. Varadarajan Mudaliar comes to mind. if you can, do watch Kamal Hasan's film based on his life with subtitles called "
Nayagan". It is now considered a cult classic and was nominated as one of the 100 best movies of all time across the world by TIME magazine.
Anyway, then, it shifted to UPites and Biharis who take care of all the manual labor of the city. And the Shiv Sena has the gall to say that they are taking away jobs from the Marathi Manoos(local Maharashtrians) when in fact those are jobs that local Maharashtrians will not do. If they did, the Biharis would not be able to fill up the vacuum in the first place. The Shiv Sena has tried to spread it's word to other parts of the state but has failed. It succeeds in Mumbai because in the civic body elections, nobody else turns out to vote other than the core Marathi vote bank of the Sena. Voter turnout ranges from 20% to a maximum of 45% generally speaking.
It is also true that the Sena, by and large, does not meddle too much with what keeps Mumbai ticking because that would mean that the rest would start voting in these civic polls just to make sure that the Sena is not a nuisance anymore. They frequently make anti-Pakistan noises, get their thugs to bully some unfortunate UPite here or there and talk about cab drivers having to learn Marathi to get a license but this time, by popular consent, they have gone one step too far.