Rich in detail, this eye-opening book explores the activities and political strategies of women political workers and leaders of Shiv Sena. Based on more than ten years of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with dozens of women Sena workers in urban Maharashtra, the work shows how they conjure political authority through the inventive, dangerous, and transgressive political personas known as dashing ladies. Through the narratives of these women, Tarini Bedi develops a feminist theory of brokerage politics, and what can be termed ?political matronage?