Maha-K'taka border dispute raked up to divert attention from guv's insult to Shivaji: Sanjay Raut
Mumbai, Nov 25: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Friday claimed that the issue of Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute has been raked up to divert people's attention from Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's "insult" to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Last week, Koshyari had said during an event in Aurangabad that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was an icon of "olden days". His statement had drawn flak from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction.
Talking to reporters here, Raut said that earlier Koshyari had insulted Marathi-speaking people with his comment that Mumbai will not remain the country's financial capital if Gujaratis and Marwaris left the city.
''At that time, to divert attention from this insult, I was arrested," said Raut, who was booked in a money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment project.
The Sena leader was granted bail earlier this month after spending 100 days in jail.
Similarly, now the issue of Karnataka staking claim over Jat taluka in Sangli is being used to divert people's attention, he said.
''This script is ready for them. However, people will not forget the insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj no matter how much you try,'' Raut said.
The political situation in Maharashtra has heated up after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday claimed that some village panchayats in Jat taluka of Sangli district had passed a resolution in the past seeking to merge with Karnataka when they were facing a severe water crisis.
Earlier in the day, Raut met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar at the latter's residence.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
