Eknath Shinde: Thackeray cousins are trying to create a fake narrative, which won’t affect our prospects
In a first in BMC’s history, we have started constructing seven sewage treatment plants. The Mithi river is in a mess, Metro 3 and its car shed were halted, leading to the escalation of project cost by ₹10,000 crore, and the bullet train project was obstructed
MUMBAI: After a spree of robust campaigning, deputy chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde took a pause to speak to Surendra P Gangan and Yogesh Naik about how the Thackeray cousins had set up a fake narrative about the Marathi manoos being under threat, “although they did not do anything for the sons of soil”, while the Mahayuti was “facing the electorate displaying all the development work it had done”.
Excerpts from the interview:
After your mutiny in June 2022, you fought Lok Sabha and got modest success; you did well in the Assembly polls too, and now the Mumbai civic polls is like the final frontier in your fight with Uddhav Thackeray to claim the legacy of Shiv Sena. Are you confident of winning the traditional bastion of the undivided Shiv Sena?
We are presenting to people all the development work we did over the last three-and-a-half years, against what “they” (undivided Sean; now Sena-UBT) did in the last 25 years.
In a first in BMC’s history, we have started constructing seven sewage treatment plants. The Mithi river is in a mess, Metro 3 and its car shed were halted, leading to the escalation of project cost by ₹10,000 crore, and the bullet train project was obstructed. Mumbaikars were left to travel on pothole-ridden roads. We are concretising Mumbai’s roads – the first phase will be completed by May, while the entire project will be completed by the next year. We are speaking through our work.
Many of your party colleagues, including those from BJP, were a part of Sena’s 25-year regime in BMC. You have been the urban development minister since 2019 and have had direct control of the BMC. How can you then put the entire blame on Uddhav Thackeray’s party?
The “direct control” was just on paper. There was no power to take decisions. Development needs vision; having a negative mindset does not work. They could not even accelerate the redevelopment of dilapidated buildings. The builder who undertook the redevelopment of Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar (Ghatkopar-East) ran away without completing the work. He was not blacklisted. We are redeveloping 17 such clusters on plots measuring 50 to 200 acres in the city.
The Thackeray cousins are championing the rights of the Marathi manoos in this election, and have alleged that you are playing into the hands of people who are against the sons of soil. How are you countering that?
Which Marathi manoos are they talking about? Are Devendra Fadnavis and I not Marathi? They are talking about Marathi manoos’ existence being in danger – that’s a fake narrative. It is in fact they and their parties’ existence that are in danger.
We have done everything for the sons of soil to ensure that they live here with pride and fulfil late Balasaheb Thackeray’s dream. We are giving 40 lakh houses to slum dwellers, creating housing stocks so that housing rates drop. We have taken decisions related to occupation certificates and steps to make Mumbai pagri-free. Who had stopped them from doing all this?
All they did was to mint money from the khichadi and body bag scams during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Uddhav Thackeray has alleged that you have been emptying BMC’s coffers. The fixed deposits were used recklessly for infra projects without planning.
I released the figures yesterday. The ₹75,000-crore FDs from their time have grown to ₹91,000-crore during our government after we took decisions related to premium and waiver in stamp duty. The capital expenditure of the BMC has increased to ₹20,000 crore now, from ₹5000 crore during their time. Now the FDs have settled at ₹80,000 crore even after heavy spending on the capital expenditure. What did they do, except hurl baseless allegations against us?
The seat sharing talks that started with 60-65 for Shiv Sena, culminated in you getting 91 seats. How did you manage that?
We applied logic. We put figures of the seats that were won on the symbol of bow and arrow, which is with us now. We demanded the seats that were ahead of the BJP, which the party gave us.
Has any formula been determined for the posts of mayor in these bodies? Will you stake a claim on the mayor’s post in Mumbai?
Our priority is not for any post, but to uplift the livelihood of Mumbaikars by decongesting roads and highways, and giving basic amenities. The mayoral post is not important. We have not decided on any formula for the mayoral post. We can do that amicably after the elections.
Both phases of the civic polls saw several instances of bitterness and tussle between the Mahayuti constituents. Could that not have been avoided?
See, these are the elections of karyakartas (workers); and as the elections are taking place after years, many aspirants have emerged. The local workers wanted to contest seats which led to clashes. However, Devendra Fadnavis and I decided not to indulge in this slugfest.
BJP leader from Tamil Nadu, K Annamalai has made a statement that Mumbai is not a Maharashtra city, but an international one. Do you agree with him?
Annamalai should not have made such a statement about Mumbai. It was wrong.
Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS combine is counting on Muslim votes to garner maximum seats. How do you plan to counter this?
There are Congress and AIMIM also in the fray. They (Sena-UBT) took Muslim votes in the Lok Sabha, but didn’t stand behind the community in the Lok Sabha when they needed them (Waqf bill). They ran away. Muslims remember this.
The government has completed 13 months in which time the most talked about issue has been the frequent disagreements between you and the CM. You also went to Delhi to meet Amit Shah for redressal?
All this is reported in the media. I speak to Devendra-ji and solve issues here. We are a part of the NDA.
Is going to Delhi a crime? Do we ask our opponents why they went to 10 Janpath?
