Mumbai:
Raj Thackeray may not have won a single seat but he's certainly arrived in electoral politics giving the saffron alliance a rude shock and costing them at least five parliamentary seats. This after the Raj Thackarey's party just contested just 11 seats in Maharashtra.
"The entire building used to vote for me. But now, I have got only four to five votes. How is that possible?" said Mohan Rawale, former Shiv Sena MP
An emotional Mohan Rawale puts into words the Shiv Sena's shock. All six seats in the city went to the UPA for which they have Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Raj's MNS cut into the Sena-BJP's vote bank costing the allies five seats that were otherwise a close contest.
"The MNS definitely played a factor," Priya Dutt, Congress MP-elect, Mumbai North-Central.
It's a shock that is even greater for the Sena considering that Raj Thackeray first split the party to launch the MNS.
He then took over its anti-North Indian agenda and even went to jail. And now he has successfully split the Sena's votebank.
"There is a dialogue in the movie Amar Akbar Anthony -- they hit us, we hit back twice but two solid punches," Raj said.
But the Shiv Sena, at least for the cameras, continues to put on a brave face.
"Last time around there was no MNS even then we won 12 seats. This time we have won only 11," said Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of Shiv Sena.
Maharashtra goes to the polls in about five months. And if this result is any indication of the Raj's strength, the Sena-BJP have a lot to worry about.