JOIN USFrom autorickshaw driver to Maharashtra CM: Eknath Shinde’s rise to power
From doing odd jobs, including driving an autorickshaw in Thane district, Eknath Shinde has come a long way to become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
But to get to the chief minister’s position, he had to topple his predecessor—his party president, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. When the 58-year-old leader rebelled, throwing the MVA into a tailspin, posters of Shinde—with Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on one side and Anand Dighe on the other—popped up throughout Thane, as well as in neighbouring Palghar and Raigad districts.
While doing odd jobs, Shinde was influenced early on in his political career by the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb, and the Sena’s Thane-belt strongman Anand Dighe.
Dighe, known as “the Bal Thackeray of Thane”, wielded strong influence in the Palghar-Thane-Raigad belt.
Like Dighe, Shinde sports a beard and saffron tika on his forehead and is mostly seen in crisp spotless white full-sleeve shirts and trousers.
When Shinde joined Shiv Sena in the 1980s, the saffron party was in its early stages espousing the cause of ‘bhoomiputra’ or Marathi-manoos and Hindutva. Soon, Shinde was appointed Shakha Pramukh of Kisan Nagar in Thane. Since then, he has been at the forefront of many agitations, including the Maharashtra-Karnataka border agitation in 1985.
In 1997, he was elected to the Thane Municipal Corporation and tasked by the Shiv Sena to work in Thane. He is also a four-term MLA from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency of the Thane district.
Shinde rose within the ranks of Shiv Sena; and in 2014, when the party initially chose not to join the government, Shinde was made the Leader of the Opposition. Once Shiv Sena joined the government, he was given the portfolio of the Public Works Department, looking after Public Undertakings and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation. He also held the charge of the Public Health and Family Welfare portfolio.
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi government assumed charge in 2019, Shinde got the portfolio of the Urban Development Department and fast-tracked several pending projects.
Shinde was born on February 9, 1964 in Satara. When he was 11, his family moved to Thane, where he studied till 11th standard and went on to drive an autorickshaw to support his family.