‘I didn’t want to join government,' a miffed Eknath Shinde tells Shiv Sena leaders
Hindustan TimesMumbai: In a closed-door meeting with his party functionaries on Thursday, deputy chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde revealed that he was reluctant to join the Mahayuti government, and that he accepted the DyCM’s post only because party leaders had forced him to do so, HT has learnt from people in the know from the party. Shiv Sena will have a steering committee for the BMC polls, which will showcase Shinde’s achievements in his tenure as chief minister, prominently, the inauguration of Atal Setu, parts of coastal road, several metro routes and aapla dawakhana. At the meeting Shinde also said while many from Shiv Sena were ready to join him, he had stopped the entries prioritising tickets for his own party workers in the BMC election. Shinde told his men that there were many former corporators from 2017–2022 batch and nearly 30 former corporators from the 2012-2017 batch in Shiv Sena.