We are 'khuddar' not 'gaddar', and contracted to develop Maharashtra: CM Eknath Shinde

Defending his “rebellion” against the Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said we are “khuddar” not “gaddar” (self-respecting, not traitors). Shinde justified his decision to walk out of an “unnatural alliance” in his address in the Maharashtra legislature as the monsoon session ended on Thursday.

Shinde was responding to the allegations and unsavoury verbal attacks on him, since he walked out of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government.

MVA members had regularly described Shinde as a “contract-CM”, and he chose the state assembly floor to hit back. “Yes…indeed…I had taken up a contract for development of Maharashtra…people’s welfare is my only agenda,” he said.

Also read: Classical language status for Marathi: Maharashtra CM writes to PM for approval

“Daily they have been saying ‘gaddar’…but let me tell you all, we are not ‘gaddar’ but ‘khuddar’,” the chief minister told the Maharashtra Legislature as the brief monsoon session ended on Thursday.

Justifying his decision to form a new Shiv Sena group, and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said, “We had to take the decision for self-respect and honour and take forward the legacy of Balasaheb (Thackeray).”

“When union MSME minister Narayan Rane made some comments (last year) against the then chief minister (Uddhav Thackeray), he was arrested,” Shinde said about his predecessor, the Shiv Sena president against whom he revolted.

“Who has betrayed the ideology of Balasaheb and the mandate of people and entered into an unnatural alliance (with NCP and Congress) to come to power? We have just corrected and amended what was wrong,” he told the state assembly.

Shinde also termed the repeated criticism against him as “nothing but ideological bankruptcy.”

“I have decided to respond with work…I have talent but was never allowed to showcase it,” he said, in another veiled attack on the Thackeray family.