Days after taking oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra following a rebellion Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde on Tuesday referring to his humble past when he used to drive an autorickshaw to earn living and took a dig at Sena president and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, saying an “autorickshaw has outpaced Mercedes car”. “Autorickshaw outpaced Mercedes (car)… because this is a government of the common man,” Shinde tweeted in Marathi.
Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30 with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy, a day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as the CM without taking the floor test.
The speed of the Mercedes faded before the speed of the rickshaw .. because this is the government of the common man !!#MaharashtraFirst
— Eknath Shinde – Eknath Shinde (@mieknathshinde) July 5, 2022
Before stepping into politics, Shinde used to drive an auto rickshaw to earn a living.
Maharashtra CM’s remarks on Thackeray came days after some Sena leaders taunted him as an “auto rickshaw driver”. He has formed government in Maharashtra with the help of BJP and at least 40 Sena MLAs after the collapse of the Thackeray-led MVA government last week.
It is interesting to note that Thackeray had reached Raj Bhavan driving a Mercedes car to submit his resignation to the Governor Bhagat Singh Khoshiyari.
Meanwhile, even the Deputy CM had earlier taken a dig at Uddhav’s son Aaditya Thackeray calling him a “Mercedes baby” who cannot appreciate the struggle of ‘Karsevaks’ who took part in the agitation for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya in the early 1990s.