In a dramatic announcement, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis declared that Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde will be the new chief minister of Maharashtra.
From working in a beer brewery in Thane and driving an autorickshaw to make ends meet, to becoming one of the most powerful leaders in the Shiv Sena and now becoming the chief minister of the state, Shinde has come a long way.
A school dropout from Satara who came to Thane scouting for odd jobs, Shinde's association with the Shiv Sena goes back to the mid-1980s. Upon joining, in a short span of time, he moved up the ranks from a shakha pramukh of Kisan Nagar in Thane. He was first noticed by the Shiv Sena's Anand Dighe, the then Thane district chief under whose tutelage he was made the corporator. In 2000, Shinde faced twin tragedies when he lost two of his three children to a drowning accident in the state and went into depression. He was at the verge of taking his own life when Dighe successfully dissuaded him and encouraged him by making him the party's group leader in Thane municipal corporation with a view to keep him engaged.
Shinde's first major turnaround came about in 2001 when his mentor and guide Dighe died. He then took control of the party's Thane unit and became its chief go-to-person. His exceptional people management, social and oratory skills led the party to give him the opportunity to contest the 2004 assembly elections. He won by a good margin and went on to become Shiv Sena's key in-charge of Thane district. In 2005, when Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane brought along a vertical split in the Shiv Sena, Shinde ensured that the ripples were not felt in the Sena's Thane unit he was heading.
Shinde's performance as Thane's key troubleshooter got him close to Uddhav Thackeray which further boosted the young Shinde's morale, and he went on to build the party's Thane unit aggressively. In 2009, he was elected as the MLA from the Shiv Sena and at the same time, sensing an opportunity, the Congress went to him with an offer of a ministerial berth, but the Sena loyalist refused.
His close association with the senior and junior Thackerays at the time, Balasaheb and Uddhav, shadowed everything else. He used his time to strengthen his support base among the MLAs, emerged as the party's most prominent voice of the region and established a firm grip over the party's Thane and Palghar districts.
In 2014, Shinde got elected again and went on to become the leader of the opposition. When Sena joined the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government at the time, Shinde bagged the prestigious public works department (PWD) portfolio as a Sena minister and launched the ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur express highway project.
In 2019, after Sena's equations with the BJP had turned sour over the issue of the chief ministerial candidature, and the party needed the support of the Congress/NCP to come to power, Shinde was not in favour. While the BJP wanted one of its own to take the top job, Thackeray had maintained that the top post would be shared by both parties for equal time, two-and-a-half-years. As Thackeray was close to sealing the deal with NCP and Congress, Shinde, along with his supporters, expressed his opposition to such an alliance, but was ignored. When Thackeray became the CM, Shinde too began aspiring for the position of second-in-command in the Sena given his experience, expertise, proximity to the party chief and trust he earned over the years. That didn't happen, and with the entry of fresh blood in the form of Aaditya Thackeray, Shinde began to feel sidelined. It finally culminated in a revolt and the fall of the MVA government.
