Sena vs MNS: Whose Wi-Fi was better?

After the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena scrambled to be the first ones to provide free Wi-Fi services at Shivaji Park, mid-day went to test the network claims

So, which of the two Senas came out on top in the Wi-Fi war? At first glance, at least, the Shiv Sena seems to have trumped the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). After the two fierce rivals waged a digital war and installed three Wi-Fi routers each at Shivaji Park in Dadar, this correspondent went to check how good the services actually were.

Also read: Shivaji Park becomes Wi-Fi war zone for Shiv Sena and MNS

Each party has a hoarding announcing its free Wi-Fi services, at the entrance of the Shivaji Park ground. Pics/Satyajit Desai

mid-day had reported yesterday on the game of one-upmanship played between the two parties to be the first one to inaugurate the services. At around 3.30 pm, we reached the Shivaji Park ground entrance, where we could see two hoardings advertising services provided by each party.

While we could connect to the Shiv Sena Wi-Fi router, the MNS’s network didn’t work for us

When we switched on the Wi-Fi on our phone, the first connection to pop up was the Shiv Sena’s (SHIVSENA-YUVASENA), the password for which was provided (‘shivsenadadar’) on a poster featuring Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray. While the network is available in most of the area, it starts to give up as you walk towards the Mayor’s bungalow.

mid-day’s report on July 16

Samadhan Sarvankar, office bearer of the Yuva Sena, who is responsible for taking this initiative in the party, said, “Currently, we have Wi-Fi services till the Mayor’s bungalow. For areas beyond that, the routers have been installed and will be functional in a day or two. We will soon have Wi-Fi across Shivaji Park.”

On the other hand, we, at first, couldn’t even find the MNS connection in the area. When we walked and reached Krishna Kunj, MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s residence where one of the routers is installed, the network showed up. But, we were unable to connect to it — we tried sending messages through WhatsApp and emails, but failed.

Sandeep Deshpande, MNS’s group leader in the BMC, who is in charge of the project, had told us we could automatically connect to their network. When asked why we weren’t able to do so, he replied: “Reporters are nobody to judge us. Sixty two people had logged into our network. It is technology. It may go wrong at times.”

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