In this attempt of disassembling Maha Vikas Aghadi, Eknath Shinde the rebel goes to an extent of compromising the life of a fellow MLA. Nitin Deshmukh a Shiv Sena MLA was earlier assumed to have joined the rebel Sena gang. He reached Mumbai with great difficulties and fear of life. He told his chilling experiences to the media. Deshmukh has resurfaced voicing his support for Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. He claimed that he was “abducted” and taken to Gujarat’s Surat where he ran away.

When he managed to leave the premise where all these MLAs were kept, he reached the main road at around 3 am in the midnight trying to hitch a ride from passersby. While he was asking for help, many cops chased him and took him to a hospital. They pretended that the MLA had a heart attack and tried to conduct some medical procedure on his body. Deshmukh did not suffer any sudden health complications but was forcibly taken to the hospital. The doctors wanted to operate on him, and harm him under the pretext of some heart issue. Once again, he managed to escape from the hospital and with great difficulties reached Mumbai.

Pranjali, Deshmukh’s wife, had submitted a written complaint to the Akola police station saying she last spoke to her husband on a phone call at 7 pm on June 20 and hasn’t been able to communicate with him since as his phone has been switched off. She suspected a threat to Deshmukh’s life. Deshmukh was not only taken to the hospital and given the wrong medication to compromise his health but his phone was also confiscated by the rebel gang. Imagine if Deshmukh wouldn’t have returned back? We would have still assumed that he is with that rebel gang or if he would have lost his life, the same rebel group could have taken advantage of his death for various reasons. This is a really dangerous trend.

After hearing Deshmukh neither our Chief minister demanded action nor the home minister took any strong action against the people who forced him to flee. I don’t know how many such MLAs are captivated and forced to stay in those hotels in this number game. Is this the character of Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sainik? This is what Eknath Shinde boasts about being Balasaheb’s Sainik? Drug, dope and try to eliminate fellow MLA for a number game? True Shiv Sainik never hides and attacks. Balasaheb’s Shiv Sainik never indulges in cowardly acts. Shiv Sena is one large family than the political party, they have all other ways to protest or leave Shiv Sena.

Shinde used to work in Bar and later on became an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane city adjoining Mumbai. Like any other youth of Maharashtra from the 1970s and 80s, Eknath Shinde too had a major influence of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Moreover, he was also impressed by the working style of Shiv Sena’s then Thane district president Anand Dighe, who later came to be known as Dharmaveer. He joined Shiv Sena in 1980s and was appointed Shakha Pramukh of Kisan Nagar. Since then, he had been at the forefront of many agitations, undertaken by his party on social and political issues, such as inflation, black marketing, hoarding of essential commodities such as palm oil by traders etc. He also took part in Maharashtra-Karnataka Border agitation in 1985, in which he was imprisoned in Bellary jail for over 40 days.

In 1997, he was given the opportunity to contest the election of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) as a corporator which he won with a handsome majority. In 2001, he got elected as a Leader of the house in TMC. He continued to occupy the post till 2004. In 2004, Eknath Shinde was given an opportunity to contest the Assembly Elections from Thane Assembly Constituency by Balasaheb Thackeray and he won the same with a good majority. In the very next year, in 2005, he was appointed to the coveted post of Shiv Sena Thane District Head. He was the first MLA from Shiv Sena to have been appointed The District Head as well.

The purpose of writing all this is to tell that the auto puller can become such a nig political leader with all riches just because Bala Saheb Thackrey supported and encouraged him. He is indebted to Shiv Sena and its leaders who supported him. He emerged victorious in the subsequent assembly elections in 2009, 2014 and 2019. After the 2014 elections, he was elected as the leader of the legislative party of Shiv Sena and subsequently the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly. Within a month, as Shiv Sena decided to join the state government, he took oath as the Minister for Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) and went on to take the additional responsibility of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry in January 2019. His son, Dr Shrikant Shinde, is an orthopaedic surgeon who got elected as a Member of Parliament to the Lok Sabha from the Kalyan constituency, defeating the NCP’s Anand Paranjape, who had defected from the Shiv Sena and Raju Patil of the MNS. For the past 40 years, Shiv Sena gave him positions, opportunities and support. Today whatever he is, all that is because of Shiv Sena. Whatever riches he earned are given by the status he possesses. His greed has taken him on new excursions, he rebelled against the party that gave him existence. He is falsely using Bala Saheb Thackrey’s name and political sentiments of Hindutva. I am sure money mesmerizes all of us, and power plays a vital factor in human brains. According to a source, the list of Shiv Sena leaders was on the radar of investigating agencies including Eknath Shinde and his close associates like Ajay Ashar, a real estate businessman. One needs to really understand what has forced Eknath against Shiv Sena that gave him presence and survival or did the ED push Eknath Shinde into BJP’s arms? Even if he joins BJP can he survive only on Hindutva agenda? Can he remain loyal to the new party when he easily gave up on his original loyalties?