Meet Eknath Shinde, The Maharashtra CM Whose Revolt Led To MVA Govt Collapse

Eknath Shinde: After his 2014 victory, Shinde was elected as the leader of the legislative party of the Shiv Sena and subsequently the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.

New Delhi: After the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister of Maharashtra, rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde is all set to take oath as the next chief minister of the state. Staking claim to form the government, BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis announced the name of Eknath Shinde as the new chief minister, saying other ministers would be sworn in later. Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan, after which they addressed a press conference where Fadnavis announced that Eknath Shinde would be the CM and he will support from outside.

Eknath Shinde, who was the urban development minister in the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray, had rebelled with a group of other Shiv Sena MLAs, pushing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government into a major political crisis. The top Sena leader claimed to have support of at least 15 MLAs initially, and the number just kept growing.

Elected for four back-to-back terms — 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019 — to the Maharashtra Assembly, the 58-year-old enjoys popular support and has been responsible for organising the Shiv Sena’s big events.

After his 2014 victory, Shinde was elected the leader of the Shiv Sena legislative party and subsequently the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly for a brief period as the Shiv Sena soon formally joined the BJP government in Maharashtra led by Fadnavis. He became PWD minister in the Fadnavis cabinet.

In his 10 years from 2004 to 2014, as the MLA of the main Opposition party in the assembly, Shinde consistently raised issues concerning the state in general and Thane in particular, the most prominent being the cluster development scheme for dilapidated illegal buildings in Thane and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Thane Metro, a new extended thane station between Thane and Mulund, water scarcity, coastal security of the state, modernisation of the police force, inflation and increasing debt of the state.

Shiv Sainik Since 1980s

Shinde, who belongs to the Maratha community from the mountainous Jawali taluka in Satara, has a considerable clout in the Shiv Sena stronghold Thane. He is responsible for strengthening the party in many other places as well.

Shinde did odd jobs early in his career, and came under the influence of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and party’s Thane district chief Anand Dighe during the time. He joined the Shiv Sena in 1980s and was soon appointed the shakha pramukh of Kisan Nagar. Since then, he has been at the forefront of many agitations undertaken by his party on social and political issues such as inflation, black marketing, hoarding of essential commodities such as palm oil by traders etc.

He also took part in Maharashtra-Karnataka border agitation in 1985 and was arrested. He spent over 40 days in the Bellary jail. His son Dr Shrikant Shinde, an orthopaedic surgeon, got elected as a member of Parliament to the Lok Sabha from the Kalyan constituency, while his brother Prakash Shinde is a councillor.