PANAJI: Shiv Sena’s rebel MLAs who were seen in a video dancing in delight at a Goa hotel as Eknath Shinde was named as the chief minister in Mumbai have been reprimanded by the new chief minister and “leader of the family” Eknath Shinde, a senior party leader said on Friday.
“It is true that there has been some negative reaction and understandably so, that in the happiness of the moment they may have behaved in a way that was not appropriate. But you must understand that these were MLAs who at one point were staring at disqualification so that was a sense of jubilation,” MLA Deepak Kesarkar, who has been speaking for the Sena faction led by Shinde, said.
“The leader of our family Eknath Shinde who arrived in Goa has asked us to behave in a mature manner now that we are in government and leaders of the people,” Kesarkar said.
The expansive new Taj Hotel overlooking the Zuari bay at the Dona Paula locality of the state capital has been hosting the MLAs since they landed in Goa from Guwahati on Wednesday night.
Shinde, who had left for Mumbai earlier on Thursday to meet BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, returned to Goa around midnight after being sworn as chief minister with Fadnavis as his deputy.
On Friday, Shinde told reporters at Dona Paula that he was returning to Mumbai to monitor the flood situation and pledged to make Maharashtra free of farmer suicides his top priority.
“I held a meeting of my MLAs in the morning. I am heading back to Mumbai because it has been raining a lot and we have called for a meeting of the disaster management committee to oversee the situation,” Shinde said.
“On the occasion of Krishi din, celebrated on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Vasantrao Naik, I announce that it will be my priority and do whatever it takes to make Maharashtra free of farmer suicides — something that has been a black spot on this very agrarian state,” Shinde said adding that his government would support farmers beyond just farmer waivers or subsidies.