- Wednesday, March 19, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
MAHARASHTRA chief minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday (6) hit back at his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, also from his own party Shiv Sena, by referring to his past as an auto-rickshaw driver and said “auto-rickshaw has left Mercedes behind”.
In an exclusive interview with Asian News International, Shinde, who took oath as the chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Sena was split between the groups led by Thackeray and him, said his government is for common people and is committed to giving justice to all sections of society.
He said the government will work in a way that everyone will feel it is their government.
“(Auto) rickshaw has left the Mercedes behind because this government is for common people, this is a government to give justice to every section. We will perform in a way that every constituent, everyone feels it is my government, it will work for me. This will be the difference,” the chief minister said.
He was responding to a question on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s remarks on Tuesday (5) in which he had said the BJP used to call the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi or Maharashtra Development Front) government a three-wheeler (it was a coalition between the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Indian National Congress) government but now the person who drove three-wheeler is running the government.
Thackeray also accused Shinde of backstabbing him.
Shinde led the revolt in the Sena which eventually forced Thackeray to resign as the chief minister on June 29 as chief minister. Shinde took over as the new chief minister the next day with the BJP’s backing even though the latter has more than 100 seats in the 288-member strong Maharashtra assembly.
Referring to the BJP’s support in forming the government, Shinde said the party had shown to people of the country that they are not only for power but also for ideology.
“All were anticipating, there was a perception in the public that BJP does anything for power. But they have shown to the country that these 50 people have taken a Hindutva position, an ideological position and their agenda is of development and Hindutva and they should be supported. And they supported us despite having more numbers, more MLAs. They gave us support for the post of chief minister,” Shinde said.
Shinde said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi told him to take the state forward.
He also said that Modi assured of his government’s full support in Maharashtra’s development endeavours.
“This is a big thing. The Centre is also with us. We have not done anything illegal. The pre-poll alliance was between BJP and Shiv Sena. We are allying with that party,” he said.
