Caption with Fadnavis driving pic:
The video of Fadnavis driving a Mercedes Benz SUV on the expressway with Shinde sitting in the passenger seat went viral, evoking remarks that Fadnavis was actually in the driver’s seat
Strap for web: The 701-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway was Devendra Fadnavis’s brainchild. Notwithstanding strong opposition from farmers in different areas, Fadnavis pushed through the project, the first phase of which was inaugurated by the prime minister on Sunday. Shinde is now being projected as the new ‘infra-man’ in the state.
Nitin Gadkari became popular in Maharashtra when he built the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, India’s first access controlled greenfield highway. During his tenure as public works minister between 1995-99 in the first Shiv Sena-BJP government, Gadkari kickstarted several ambitious infrastructure projects, earning the reputation of the politician who knew how to build infrastructure. He still continues to do that now as union surface transport minister.
After him, Vilasrao Deshmukh took up the mantle of rebuilding Mumbai’s infrastructure during his tenure as chief minister and was lauded for the same. As the second saffron combine government came to power in 2014, then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis took up a whole set of infrastructure projects including a metro network in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune. The 701-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway was his brainchild. Notwithstanding strong opposition from farmers in different areas, Fadnavis pushed through the project, the first phase of which was inaugurated by the prime minister on Sunday. The other person who played a role in the completion of the project was Eknath Shinde who headed the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) in three different government since 2014.
Shinde is now being projected as the new ‘infra-man’ in the state. Ahead of the inauguration in Nagpur, Shinde’s spin doctors seemed to be at work. The ads in different media and interviews to Marathi channels were meant to drive home the point: Shinde has been the driving force who made the expressway project happen. In his interviews, Shinde insisted that the project was conceived by Fadnavis but “we” implemented it. So what is it? Shinde wants the credit since he headed the MSRDC, the agency that is building it? Or does he simply want to steal the march on Fadnavis?
According to his close aides, Shinde is not amused by the talk of him being the nominal CM while the real power is in the hands of his deputy chief minister. With crucial departments such as home and finance in his hands and the BJP with more than double of Shinde’s MLAs in the current government, the general impression is that Fadnavis is running the show.
The Shinde camp is keen to show that the chief minister runs his own agenda and is not following the script of Fadnavis or the BJP. It would help the camp counter the Thackeray faction’s narrative that Shinde is a chief minister “installed by the BJP”.
Incidentally the PR push came soon after the video of Fadnavis driving a Mercedes Benz SUV on the expressway with Shinde sitting in the passenger seat went viral, evoking remarks that Fadnavis was actually in the driver’s seat. “Earlier when we had visited the expressway, I had driven the car,” Shinde insisted later.
Who is the officer?
BJP MLA Ameet Satam on Saturday tweeted about an IAS officer. ‘Who is d IAS officer stitches clothes worth 40 lacs in 1 yr at fashion designer at hughes rd paid by real estate giant who owns a mall in central Mumbai? (sic)’ he posted on his Twitter account. Satam has also alleged that the same officer has investment in the USA. Earlier, a person close to a top BJP leader tweeted about the officer as well, urging central agencies to take note of his financial transactions. With civic election round the corner, several BJP leaders have been talking about exposing the IAS officers who were considered close to the previous regime. Is something happening in the coming days?
Deadly enmity continues
A political murder had shaken up Maharashtra in June 2006 when Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar was shot dead near Kalamboli on Mumbai-Pune expressway. Later, his cousin and NCP heavyweight from Osmanabad, Padmasinh Patil was arrested in the murder case. In October 2018, the Bombay High Court transferred the case to the CBI for investigation. The case was back in focus earlier this week due to a spat between the sons of both of them in a meeting called by local administration in Osmanabad. Omraje, son of Pawanraje Nimbalkar and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP from Osmanabad had a heated argument with his cousin Rana Jagjitsingh, som of Padmasinh Patil, who is now BJP MLA from the same district. The spat has now led to both cousins and their kin issuing warnings to each other. Nimbalkar then chose Shiv Sena function to train guns on his uncle and cousin saying he would never forget the killers of his father. While the trial is on in the court, the enmity continues in the third generation of both the families.
