Shinde backs team effort, denies credit race after ads spotlight CM Fadnavis alone

Shinde stresses the Mahayuti government’s joint role in delivering justice to Maratha and OBC communities amid controversy over full-page ads featuring only Fadnavis.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Former CM Eknath Shinde.

Credit: PTI Photo

Thane: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said there was no race among Mahayuti allies to claim credit for work, and asserted that he was working with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a team. He made the statement in response to a question over full-page advertisements published in prominent newspapers on Saturday, featuring only CM Fadnavis.

One advertisement shows Fadnavis offering floral tributes to the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, while another shows him paying obeisance to Lord Ganesh on the occasion of Anant Chaturdashi, the last day of 10-day Ganpati festival. Both the ads have 'Devabhau' written in Marathi at the bottom.

However, it could not be known who sponsored the advertisements. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a public function in Thane, Shinde was asked whether these advertisements were an attempt by CM Fadnavis to project himself as the architect of the Maratha reservation.

In response, Shinde said, "We are not in a race to take credit...Whether it is the Maratha community or the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, the work of delivering justice to them has been done by the Mahayuti government. The validation of this work was already received in the last assembly elections," he said.

"Now Devendraji and I have started our second innings as a team. Going forward, our agenda remains the same - development of the state and helping the poor and needy," he said. The issue of Maratha reservation rocked the state once again recently with activist Manoj Jarange's five-day hunger strike in Mumbai to press for the demand.

Jarange, who launched the protest on August 29, called it off on September 2 after the state government accepted most of his demands. After the stalemate ended, CM Fadnavis said the government found a solution in the interest of the Maratha community. The ruling Mahayuti alliance comprises BJP, Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).