One more Sena (UBT) leader resigns, another expresses displeasure with party
MUMBAI: Struggling to retain his partymen, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday received yet another jolt as party secretary Sanjay Lakhe-Patil resigned, accusing Thackeray of not keeping his promise of giving him the Jalna seat in the Lok Sabha elections. Bhaskar Jadhav, group leader in the assembly, also expressed his displeasure, saying he wanted to retire, as he was upset about not being allowed to complete his speech in the party's Foundation Day function. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray (left) on Sunday received yet another jolt as party secretary Sanjay Lakhe-Patil resigned. (HT Photo)
Lakhe-Patil, a Congressman who joined Thackeray in March 2024 just before the Lok Sabha polls, was given the important post of party secretary in August 2024. However, he wanted more, and blamed Ambadas Danve for ceding the Jalna seat to the Congress. 'Danve nowadays is getting admiration from the party leadership for his anti-government protests across Marathwada. But he stole that idea from me,' he said. Danve, when contacted, said that the party leadership decided seat-sharing formulae, and he did not want to comment on Lakhe-Patil. Lakhe-Patil also claimed that Sanjay Raut had compromised the party's interest by claiming the Sangli Lok Sabha seat, which he lost badly.
The other disenchanted Sena (UBT) leader, Bhaskar Jadhav, declared that leaving the NCP to join Thackeray in 2019 was a mistake, and expressed his unhappiness about not getting a cabinet minister's post in the MVA government. According to party insiders, Jadhav was upset about not being allowed to complete his speech at the Party Foundation Day function.
Sanjay Raut, however, said that Jadhav was not upset. 'He has just expressed his feelings and Uddhav Thackeray will discuss the matter with him,' he said. 'One needs to understand that the party leadership gave Jadhav an opportunity to speak on Party Foundation Day, which is an honour.'
After Raut's statement, Jadhav responded that he had the maturity to understand that this was an honour. 'I am a grounded person and do not have any misconceptions about myself,' he said. 'But I think that I should have been made a minister in the MVA government. I still feel that leaving Sharad Pawar was a mistake but I want to make it clear that I do not regret it.'
With hundreds of his local leaders and former corporators having defected to the Shinde Sena and BJP, Thackeray on Friday held separate meetings of local leaders from all districts and organised dinner meetings with MPs and MLAs and urged them not to succumb to pressure from 'anti-Maharashtra' parties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News18
41 minutes ago
- News18
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir Now Eyeing Navy? Decoding His Anti-India Speech
Last Updated: Asim Munir speech: 'He aims to expand his influence significantly, leveraging anti-India rhetoric to consolidate power. It is a wake-up call for Pakistani politicians," sources say Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir's recent speech in Karachi, which aimed to stir anti-India sentiment to gain popularity among other forces, shows his frustration, according to top intelligence sources. His remarks seemed to be an attempt to assert Pakistan's stance on continuing proxy warfare in Kashmir while trying to secure control over the Navy through anti-India rhetoric, they said. 'The context for Munir's speech stemmed from India's aborted Karachi strike, which showcased India's capability for strong diplomacy through maritime dominance. This display of power forced Pakistan to de-escalate," sources said. ' Munir's ambitions are much broader, posing a wake-up call for Pakistani politicians. He aims to expand his influence significantly, leveraging anti-India rhetoric to consolidate power," they said. ASIM MUNIR SPEECH SHOWS FRUSTRATION OVER INDIAN NAVY POSITIONING: SOURCES Sources say that the Indian Navy has positioned itself strategically, 260 miles off Karachi, targeting critical assets such as warships, dry docks, and port infrastructure vital to Pakistan's economy. This port handles 60% of Pakistan's trade, making it a significant economic hub. 'The inability of Pakistan's navy to counter India's strategic positioning forced Islamabad to urgently seek a ceasefire on May 10. This move underscored Pakistan's conventional weaknesses, as exposed by Operation Sindoor. The aborted Karachi strike serves as a stark reminder of India's enhanced military thresholds and capabilities," they said. Munir's speech at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington. His relative and defence minister Mohsin Naqvi stood by his side as India was issued repeated challenges by Munir. The field marshal called for a return to the Pakistan of 1979, a time when mosques and cinemas coexisted, and 'India's entire system of life was under Pakistani control". He criticised weak diplomacy, stating that India 'benefited from deceit" while Pakistan missed opportunities to engage with the world. He emphasised the unity of the political and military leadership, describing them as one body and soul. He noted growing impatience among Pakistani soldiers to confront India. While acknowledging significant support from China, he stressed that Pakistan has its own resources and highlighted efforts to strengthen the economy. First Published: June 29, 2025, 12:37 IST
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
The coup leader who's become an anti-Western hero in Africa and beyond
Three years ago, Ibrahim Traoré was a junior army officer in Burkina Faso's armed forces. Today, he has emerged as a surprising anti-Western hero preaching self-reliance and resilience with fans across Africa and beyond. Since toppling the West African country's previous military leader in 2022 and making himself president, Traoré has won the kind of glowing admiration from people across the continent that has eluded African leaders since the days of antiapartheid icon Nelson Mandela and the generation that led the independence struggles. 'Many Africans are disillusioned with the West," said Ayotunde Abiodun, an analyst with SBM Intelligence, a Nigeria-based geopolitical research consulting firm. Traoré, he said, has become the anti-imperialist face of that sentiment. Russia has tried to court him, seeing him as a way to accelerate the decline of France's influence across the arid countries of the Sahel, the wide band of land bordering the southern reaches of the Sahara. But Traoré has his own agenda of reviving the Pan-African movements of the past. Whether he succeeds in putting Burkina Faso on a stronger footing and pushing back a long-running Islamist insurgency could influence what happens elsewhere across the region. The 37-year-old appears to be genuinely popular as people across the region tire of a generation of aging leaders widely seen as corrupt and beholden to the West. In April, thousands of Burkina Faso citizens poured into the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital city, in solidarity with Traoré after an alleged counter-counter-coup failed to oust him from office. The protesters were also incensed by comments by Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, accusing Traoré of misusing the country's gold reserves. Traoré partisans saw Langley's comments as a pretext for Western intervention, and members of the African diaspora held solidarity marches to show their support for him. In London, Traoré supporters held banners that read, 'Hands off African resources, Hands off Ibrahim Traoré." In Jamaica, demonstrations took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, and on the north coast in Montego Bay, where protesters sang, played drums and hailed Traoré as a 'Black liberator." Motorized rickshaws, a common mode of transport among working people, display photos of the beret-wearing Traoré in Nairobi, a city on the opposite side of the continent. Part of Traoré's appeal comes from how he styles himself after his countryman and Pan-Africanist leader Thomas Sankara. Often called 'Africa's Che Guevara," Sankara renamed the Republic of the Upper Volta as Burkina Faso, or 'land of the upright people," and set about making the country more self-sufficient before he was assassinated in 1987. In taking a leaf out of his book, Traoré has revived interest in Sankara and his pan-Africanism. Last month, a newspaper published by the Nation of Islam, the Black religious and political movement of Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, featured side-by-side photos of Traoré and Sankara on its front page. Traoré primarily came to power on a promise to improve security, however. As a captain, he ousted Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had himself overthrown a civilian government eight months earlier. Both Traoré and Damiba had justified their actions by accusing their predecessors of failing to quell dual insurgencies by Islamists affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State. Traoré has since surfed a wave of public discontent with France, the former colonial power, whose continued involvement in the political and economic lives of its former West African colonies created resentment, according to analysts. In a popular move, Traoré expelled French troops, who had also been unable to tame the insurgencies. U.S. Green Berets, who had arrived to train local commandos shortly before the coup, suspended military aid after the putsch. Donning the populist mantle, Traoré renegotiated international gold-mining contracts to guarantee the government a greater share of the revenue. He distributed tractors and cheap fertilizer to farmers and built factories, such as a tomato-processing plant and the country's first gold refinery—efforts to keep value-added businesses at home. A survey by Afrobarometer, a Ghana-based pollster, found last year that a majority of Burkina Faso's people supported military rule as the best way to combat corrupt civilian elites. The survey showed that across the continent, more than half of Africans were willing to tolerate military intervention in politics if 'elected leaders abuse power for their own ends." Two-thirds, however, rejected military rule as the default system of government. Analysts say Traoré has gained strong support from the country's rural poor by placing land under state control, nullifying previous land allocations that favored agribusinesses and recognizing customary rights of rural communities. Supporters see the measures as an attempt to undo decades of land policies that favored corporate investors over smallholder farmers, said Burkina Faso analyst Luc Damiba. The new land policies have also gained him favor from young people, who have cheered his promise of land and agricultural training. Analysts say sections of Burkina Faso's urban, educated classes, including academics, journalists and civil‑society activists, worry that Traoré doesn't intend to return the country to elected civilian government. Traoré has postponed elections scheduled for last year until 2029, saying voting will take place when the military has wrestled enough territory from jihadists to allow all citizens to vote. Like the African liberation leaders of the 1960s, Traoré has cozied up to Moscow. Last month, he attended a Moscow parade celebrating the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany. Russia has launched an influence operation in Burkina Faso involving pro-Moscow local radio stations as well as sports and musical events, says the nonprofit African Digital Democracy Observatory. Paid content lauding Traoré also began to appear across pro-Russian social-media platforms after he seized power, according to a 2023 report by the Paris-based watchdog All Eyes on Wagner. 'Allowing Burkinabé to sleep peacefully and live without hunger. These are his ambitions. This man deserves the greatest respect," read a caption on one Traoré portrait. The posts were disseminated widely across the continent by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary force active in Africa, the watchdog said, though only a fifth of Burkina Faso's population has internet access and only 12% use social media, limiting the domestic influence of online campaigns. Russia has a clear interest in getting on Traoré's good side. Hobbled by Western sanctions, it needs gold to shore up its struggling economy and has expanded its presence around West Africa through resource‑for‑security pacts, providing military trainers, mercenary units and media campaigns in exchange for mining rights. Burkina Faso, a major gold producer, struck a deal with the Russian company Nordgold, which took an 85% stake in a gold-mining project. The government, which retained 15% of the ownership, expects the project to contribute $101 million to its coffers over an eight-year span. However, unlike in countries like Mali or the Central African Republic, where Moscow's mercenaries play a key role in protecting local regimes, Traoré has been reluctant to accept Russian boots on the ground. A 400-strong contingent of Russian mercenaries, who arrived in Ouagadougou with much fanfare last year, departed within three months, according to current and former French and Burkinabé officials. 'Traoré feels the army is the guarantor to preserve his country's sovereignty," said a former minister in the Burkina Faso government. 'Russian mercenaries are not his cup of tea." Traoré's Achilles' heel, however, may be the very issue he used to sell his power grab: security. Violence has gotten worse since the military seized power. More than 17,000 people have been killed in insurgent violence since the takeover—more than triple the death toll from the final three years of civilian rule, according to an analysis by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, part of the Pentagon's National Defense University. The center analyzed data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit monitoring service. In August, jihadists massacred hundreds of villagers in Barsalogho, a remote town in north-central Burkina Faso. Rights groups report that the Burkina Faso military has committed extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions during Traoré's time in power, and has used an emergency law to forcibly conscript civilians, including critics and activists, to quell dissent. Burkina Faso officials didn't respond to requests for comment. 'There's a possibility for this symbolism and popular legitimacy that he enjoys right now to erode if there's no improvement in the security situation and economic condition of the Burkina Faso people between now and then," said Abiodun, the Nigeria-based analyst. Write to Caroline Kimeu at and Benoit Faucon at
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad denies adoption of three-language policy under previous MVA govt
MUMBAI: Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad on Sunday accused the BJP-led Maharashtra government of launching a false propaganda campaign to undermine public resistance against its alleged "anti-Marathi" agenda and push for the imposition of Hindi. The former state school education minister also refuted claims that the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, in which Congress was an ally, had accepted the three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. "We are not against the Hindi language, but we will not tolerate its forced imposition on Maharashtra," Gaikwad said. The government's move to introduce Hindi from Class 1 has faced stiff resistance from opposition parties. The row erupted after the government recently issued an amended order stating Hindi will "generally" be taught as the third language to students in Marathi and English medium schools from Classes 1 to 5. According to the order, if 20 students per grade in a school wish to study any other Indian language, they can opt out of Hindi. If such a demand arises, either a teacher will be appointed, or the language will be taught online. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has asked his party workers to burn the government resolution (GR) on Hindi language in state schools on Sundaty a day before the Maharashtra legislature's monsoon session is set to begin. Maharashtra minister Uday Samant on Friday said the policy of making Hindi compulsory from Class 1 in the state schools was approved during Uddhav Thackeray's tenure as the chief minister under the MVA government. "As Maharashtra unites against the BJP's Hindi agenda, the ruling party and its allies are spreading deliberate misinformation and citing false references to break this unity and suppress the rising voices," Gaikwad alleged in a statement. She refuted claims that the previous MVA government had accepted the three-language formula under the NEP 2020.
