As parties breakdown, bhais like Mauris step in

A new band of political activists is now vying with the traditional leadership for a larger share in power

Mumbai: At the Immaculate Conception Colony at Borivali, it was difficult to miss Mauris Noronha or Morrisbhai, who killed himself with a single bullet to the head after gunning down former Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar. The murder, captured sensationally in real time on Facebook Live, and Noronha’s subsequent suicide, is symptomatic of a deeper malaise that affects Mumbai’s faraway suburbs.

As parties breakdown, bhais like Mauris step in

Several factors, such as rampant urbanisation, unchecked migration, greed for land, and overarching political ambition, have over the years turned the once peaceful villages of Borivali-Dahisar—and the Mulund-Ghatkopar-Bhandup stretch on the eastern flank—into the city’s veritable tinderbox, said Meena Vaishampayan, a noted critic and social analyst.

A new band of political activists is now vying with the traditional leadership for a larger share in power. The young and reckless ‘bhai’ brigade has targeted the extended suburbs largely because of the cash-rich Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and infrastructure projects.

“The suburbs, which are bursting at the seams and lack civic governance, seem conducive to the rise of Little Emperors such as Morrisbhai who are clever enough to subvert the system but lack the political savvy to consolidate the gains,” said Sanjay Patil, an entrepreneur and long-time resident of Dahisar.

Pointing out that builders covet Dahisar because its skyline is dotted even in present times with old-style villas, houses, and agricultural land, Patil said, “You will find a row of cosy houses along the Dahisar railway station. Also, nestled in small, tree-lined ‘waadis’ and ‘gaothans’ are mud and brick houses which are still redolent with the smell of fruits and flowers instead of pollutants.”

“Builders need a local kingpin, and not a political party worker, to ensure the smooth passage of their housing projects,” said Patil.

Mauris Noronha’s family belonged to south Goa, and he spent his early years in a tenement at Dhobi Talao before his family moved to a 1-bedroom apartment at IC Colony, a trajectory not unlike that of many other Mumbaikars. What separated Noronha from the hoi polloi though were his exceptional poker skills. That feint can be seen in the FB live which he shot with Ghosalkar, pretending bonhomie with the younger politician even as he plotted the murder-suicide.

Noronha’s wife, Serena, told HT that he was a professional poker player. “He would go to Las Vegas every 2-3 months for tournaments and to the casinos, and he also had invested in some businesses there,” she said. IC colony residents maintained that while the Noronha family lived frugally, Mauris lavished money on building his political career. He would sponsor local Satyanarayan poojas, give hefty donations for Govinda, and would organise other sporting competitions and events for women. In fact, the ruse he had used to get Ghosalkar to his office on Thursday was to participate in a free saree distribution programme.

“During one cricket match, he gave ₹2000 for every sixer that was hit. When we wondered where the money came from, he would tell us that he had earned it while playing poker,” said one of Noronha’s neighbours requesting anonymity. The pandemic served as a perfect opportunity for him to showcase his largesse and activism. He distributed food on a large scale, organised money and free treatment for the poor, each of which would be showcased on his homepage run by his social media manager. He also got himself photographed with politicians at every opportunity and was the proud recipient of a “Corona Warrior” award which he received from then-Governor BS Koshyari and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife, Amruta. “He would distribute masks with his pictures printed on them,” said the neighbour.

Soon, the Robinhood of Dahisar, with a blood-red ‘tika’ mark on his forehead, was smiling down on his followers from large flex banners placed strategically along the Western Express Highway. ‘Nothing Is Impossible If God Wills’ was his catchphrase. Stories of his philanthropy, many apocryphal, began to do the rounds beyond the realm of IC Colony.

According to one, Noronha had hired a chopper to shower currency notes on the densely populated Ganpat Patil Nagar during Covid-19. ‘Netas’, irrespective of political labels, began to stream into his IC colony office which, it is learned, resembled a Las Vegas nightclub—loud music, strobe lights, and at least 6 large standees. The office was destroyed by irate followers of Ghosalkar after the murder on Thursday.

Once he had established his credentials as a generous patron and activist, Noronha expressed his keenness to enter the political fray. “Noronha wanted to join any political party by some means or the other. Some Congress workers from Borivali had come to me asking if we could take him in the party but I didn’t want him as we already had workers in the area,” said former Mumbai Congress chief Bhai Jagtap. It was in this quest to find a political home that Noronha befriended Abhishek Ghosalkar.

Many attribute Morrisbhai’s meteoric rise to a sharp decline in political culture and failure of traditional politics to address voters’ grievances. “Until 2000, Mumbai politics was rooted in certain values. Many corporators and legislators may have made money, but they didn’t lose sight of problems such as water supply, road repairs, or stormwater drains. Today, a local corporator can’t resolve a civic issue within the provisions of the BMC Act. Also, more and more political parties have already split up. Thus, the institutional framework of politics is in ruins,” said Digambar Kandarkar, former Shiv Sena corporator who headed the powerful Improvements Committee in the 1990s.

This political uncertainty has since triggered the ‘bhai’ era in Mumbai politics, said Kunal Mainkar, a Borivali entrepreneur. Lush with ill-gotten wealth and unencumbered by a political tag or party ideology, a ‘bhai’ can reach out to the voters and pretend to resolve their problems effectively,” he added.

“Morrisbhai didn’t have to answer a political boss. No tender tantrums, no red-tapism. His was a single-person party, and he was liberal with funds, and that’s all that mattered,” said Mainkar.

As Noronha’s popularity grew in what was until then his family’s fiefdom, Abhishek Ghosalkar began to feel the heat, especially after it was announced that Noronha was preparing to contest the next BMC election. Abhishek was upset about his wife Tejasvini’s prospects as a corporator from ward No. 1. He tried to cut a deal with Noronha by offering him ward No. 8 as a Sena (UBT) candidate, it is learnt. The Ghosalkar dynasty which owes its allegiance to Shiv Sena (UBT) holds a measure of political clout in the Borivali-Dahisar area.

In late 2022, Noronha was booked in a 2018 case of alleged rape and for which he was jailed at Taloja as an undertrial prisoner for over 3 months. Until his dying day, he held a grouse against Ghosalkar, blaming him for “instigating the woman to file the complaint against him,” said Noronha’s wife. “He would keep saying that he would not spare him for this infamy,” she added.

Four days before the shootout, Noronha was photographed in the company of chief minister Eknath Shinde. His loyalists were keen that he should join the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. That would have been a tough call for Ghosalkars. “Traditional politics is yet to work out a strategy to neutralise a ‘bhai’ without resorting to violence,” said Mainkar.

While the rape case is still in court, political parties began to shun Noronha. “People who had loaned him money began to ask him to pay back,” said a BJP leader in Borivali. Soon after his release from prison, Ghosalkar’s wife Tejasvini hosted a Facebook Live session where she said Noronha was a menace to civilised society and called for his social and political boycott. As the feud between him and the Ghosalkars became common fodder for gossip, Noronha hired a gun-wielding bodyguard from Uttar Pradesh. It was this gun that was used to settle scores with Ghosalkar and provide a tragic denouement to sordid political story.

(with inputs from Megha Sood)