The city of Mumbai witnessed a virtual shutdown yesterday, with streets and flyovers wearing a look of eerie desertion, and shops having firmly downed their shutters. Outside Matoshree, Thackeray’s Bandra home, however, unprecedented crowds of his faithfuls had started converging from the preceding night, ready to accompany their Saheb in his last journey to Shivaji Park, a spot almost synonymous with Thackeray’s inimitable, contentious rhetoric.

As the cortege rolled down from Bandra to Shivaji Park via Mahim, a sea of humanity descended on the streets, choking them. Thackeray’s last ride to Shivaji Park — a landmark fondly named Shiv tirth by him — was scheduled to commence from Matoshree at 7.30 am.