Not in race with CM to claim credit, says Shinde on ads featuring only Fadnavis

Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, has said allies in the state’s ruling Mahayuti bloc are not competing to claim credit for work, and affirmed that he is working in tandem with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The Shiv Sena leader’s remarks came in response to a question from the media over full-page advertisements published in prominent newspapers on Saturday (September 6) that featured only the Maharashtra chief minister.

One of the advertisements showed Fadnavis honouring the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, while another showed him paying reverence to Lord Ganesh on the occasion of Anant Chaturdashi, the final day of the 10-day Ganapati festival, a popular one in Maharashtra.

Both the advertisements had “Devabhau” written in Marathi at the bottom. However, it was unclear who had sponsored them.

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Not in a race

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a public event in Thane, the former chief minister was asked whether the ads were an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister to project himself as the architect of the Maratha reservation.

“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,” Shinde said.

Also read: He changed colours like chameleon: Shinde attacks Uddhav Thackeray over 2019 'betrayal'

'Second innings as a team'

“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 added.

The issue of Maratha reservation rocked Maharashtra once again recently, with activist Manoj Jarange's five-day hunger strike in Mumbai to press for the demand.

Jarange launched the protest on August 29 and called it off on September 2 after the Mahayuti government accepted most of his demands. Fadnavis later said the government found a solution in the interest of the Maratha community.

When Shinde was CM

Fadnavis served as Shinde’s deputy after the latter engineered a revolt in the Sena in mid-2022, which saw the Sena being split and the former Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray collapsing.

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Shinde’s faction, which later received the original poll symbol of the Sena, which was formed by Balasahab Thackeray in 1966, joined hands with the BJP to come to power. The alliance returned to power with a thumping victory in the 2024 Assembly elections, and Fadnavis then took over the CM’s mantle.

The ruling Mahayuti comprises, besides the BJP and Shinde’s Sena, Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.

(With agency inputs)