It appears the only beneficiary is the congress. They seem to enjoy the divisions of the Thackarey family and their sentiments. First they got the Thackareys to vote for Pratibha Patil based on a certain ex Shiv Sena person not being made CM of Maharashtra. Then they allow MNS chief to whip up the issue of regionalism cutting the anti Congress vote bank which was rising. Raj was too happy to oblige as that meant taking away the hardcore orthodox Marathi vote bank away from Shiv Sena. This benefits MNS marginally. Balasaheb saw this ploy and talked about not splitting Hinduvta vote bank but has now carefully chosen his words as anti Bihari and not North Indian. The only party which gained just be paying lip service is the Congress as it has cut the anti Congress vote bank which was HInduvta regional. These two factors had made Congress lose all the 3 states before this but now having successfully broken it are having the last laugh
