Mumbai: Amid the rebellion by 6 Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs, at least two of them have shot into the spotlight, but for entirely different and non-political reasons – Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar (Hingoli) and Sanjay Dina-Patil (Mumbai North-East). Despite their fathers currently in the process of shifting loyalties to the Shiv Sena headed by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, the son and daughter, respectively, of both these MPs have chosen to stay anchored firmly with SS (UBT) President and ex-CM U

The Shiv Sena founded by the late Balasaheb Keshav Thackeray in 1966 may have little reason to celebrate its Diamond Jubilee tomorrow – in his birth centenary year. For the second time in four years today, the party – now, Shiv Sena (UBT) - has suffered a potential split, ironically led by Eknath Shinde who first broke away on June 21, 2022. Political soothsayers aver that this time the bodily harm is serious and the wound goes deep, so the party - which espoused the caus

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Minister Sanjay Shirsat has inadvertently fueled opposition propaganda. While reacting to an editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana on Saturday he suggested that his party and the BJP could contest the 2029 elections separately. The statement strengthens the UBT’s ongoing narrative that the BJP plans to sideline its current alliance partners. Shirsat essentially validated these opposition speculations instead of firmly dismissing them. The Saamana e

In Maharashtra’s fractious politics, the BJP is showing that power lies not in noise, but in deft timing. Maharashtra’s politics has rarely lacked for drama. Alliances fray and reform, and crises appear with theatrical regularity. Yet the state’s current political moment is less about spectacle than about subtlety. Two seemingly unrelated episodes – the grim scandal surrounding a self-styled godman in Nashik and a local council election in Satara - offer a revealing glimpse i

Coalitions, like marriages, are tested less by grand crises than by small humiliations. The ruling Mahayuti – a coalition between the Bharatiya Janata Party, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the late Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party - has found itself rattled by precisely such an episode. The proximate cause was the election of the Satara Zilla Parishad president. The controversy hinges on allegations that local police prevented some elected members from voting during the