The two little puppies nibbling at my ankles turn out to be Chihuahuas. Smita Thackeray — the daughter-in-law of one-time Marathi macho man Bal Thackeray — has got them from Bangkok. Apart from the two, she has three other Chihuahuas, a breed of miniature dogs whose bite is generally even worse than their bark.

From her height of five feet nothing, Smita Thackeray too looks rather innocuous. But appearances, as we know, can be deceptive. You may miss her in a crowd, but she is arguably one of the most powerful and controversial women of Maharashtra. Thackeray, 49, pulled the tiger — a moniker often used for the Shiv Sena founder — by its tail in its home ground recently, when she declared that she admired Sonia Gandhi and would like to join the Congress. That was quite something coming from a member of the Thackeray family, whose patriarch has consistently described the Congress president as an Italian bahu.

“I respect Sonia Gandhi because she has a vision,” she says. “When she takes up a task, she has to accomplish it. Though people say she has got everything readymade, she has sustained what she inherited. She has sacrificed the power and posts that she got,” Thackeray says in her soft, even tone, sometimes barely audible.

We are in her bungalow on a quiet leafy street in Mumbai’s upscale Vile Parle. Smita Thackeray is in a billowing white skirt and a blue T-shirt, with a coloured stole wrapped around her. The sit-out area near the lobby is small and unostentatious with two cartons of Bisleri bottles stacked up in a corner. What catches the eye is a teapoy which is in the shape of a sculpted semi-naked woman resting on her elbow, with a glass top. There are three faux tigers in another corner of the room.

In a family known for making news — apart from father-in-law Bal there is her brother-in-law Uddhav, and his estranged cousin, Raj — Smita Thackeray has been rather quiet these days. There was a time, some years ago, when you couldn’t miss her. In fact, when the Shiv Sena was in power in Maharashtra with the Bharatiya Janata Party, she was treated as a veritable power centre.

In the last few months, however, she has been busy trying to find her political moorings. Many thought that she would be one of the heirs of the Sena, especially when she decided to stay with her in-laws at their house, Matoshree, in Bandra after her marriage to Bal Thackeray’s son Jaidev broke up in 1998.

Two years ago, Smita, who had been aspiring for a political post in the Sena for long, walked out of Matoshree — a move that was seen to be as much physical as symbolic. “They just didn’t allow me to work for the party. I don’t know the reasons. I was not given a chance. They kept telling me I should not interfere in their business of politics.”

So Thackeray kept busy with Bollywood. A former president of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association, she produced a few films which starred Govinda, Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon. After films such as Haseena Maan Jayegi, Sandwich, Kaisay Kahein and a clutch of television serials, she handed over the baton to her sister, who is now handling her TV productions for Marathi serials. Her 23-year-old son Rahul, who has been trained in filmmaking, is producing a film called Society starring Paresh Rawal, Om Puri and Dimple Kapadia. The film is being directed by Rahul Dholakia, whose earlier film Parzania was an indictment of the anti-Muslim riots of Gujarat.

“Bollywood is the lighter side of me,” she now says. “I get a lot of pleasure working for Bollywood. But it is not a vocation. I can’t leave my mark in Bollywood which I can do in politics.”

The grapevine is abuzz that Smita Thackeray was upset that she was not given a Rajya Sabha ticket by the Shiv Sena. Some believe that her threat to join the Congress is just a pressure tactic to ensure that she gets into the Rajya Sabha in June, when a few seats fall vacant. “Politics is a good platform for me. I can be a good speaker,” she says.

Smita Thackeray may have left her father-in-law’s house, but the veteran politician is seldom out of her thoughts. He keeps cropping up in the conversation — often breaking a chain of thought. She states that if Bal Thackeray speaks derogatorily of Sonia Gandhi then “it is his perception from a politician’s point of view” — a line that may not go down very well with the Congress.

But she is equally effusive about the Congress president. “Personally I think Sonia Gandhi is a great politician too. She has proved herself. No matter what her origins, she has given all her blood, soul and time for this country. See, if she had gone back to Italy, done something for that country, or her family there, it would be justified for people to talk about her (Italian) origin. But she has not done so. I like the way she has raised her children to be future leaders and with so much dignity.”

The rumour mill has it that Thackeray is all set to join the Shiv Sena’s arch rivals. “If I get a call from the Congress, I will definitely like to join them, but it has to be a good, respected call.” She repeats the word “respected,” without elaborating what she means by it. “I love their ideology and would love to work with them.”

The lady, clearly, is raring to go. The rise of women in various political parties makes her wonder why she has been left behind. “I am not getting justice,” she says. “There are so many women now coming out of the woodwork to join politics. Their families are supporting them. Look at Supriya Sule (Sharad Pawar’s daughter). Then there is Pranati Shinde, daughter of Sushil Kumar Shinde, Pramod Mahajan’s daughter and so many others. Why not me? What is stopping me?”

Is it the Thackeray surname, I venture gingerly. “I don’t know,” she replies. “I believe I have only one life. I have to live for my children. I have to prove it to my children that they should be proud of me. I am not doing anything wrong. I am doing something that satisfies me. I am doing good for society.”

She is often asked by people if her empathy for the Congress means she is betraying the Thackerays. “I have spent 23 years of my life over there in that house with that family. Can’t they understand what I am going through? I have raised two children. Can’t they understand what place I need from society? So if it is betrayal, it is from both sides.”

At Matoshree, she was the woman of the house after Bal Thackeray’s wife Meena died in 1996. But Thackeray says she felt compelled to leave the house because many of her visitors were not “comfortable” about meeting her there. “My children who grew up there go there regularly. I go once in a while. My father-in-law is there. I have the greatest regard and respect for him. Without his blessings, I would be nowhere.”

She has her reservations about the other Thackerays though. “Somehow I don’t like the other members of the family because I think they never supported me.”

Thackeray’s leit motif is that she wants to work. “I used to keep telling my father-in-law that I was not a threat and that I was just a small fish in the pond,” she says. “I will say the same to Congress workers who fear my entry. I will not take your share, but work along with you.”

Any takers?