Eknath Shinde Age, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Eknath Shinde

• Eknath Shinde is an Indian politician who became the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 30 June 2022 after he rebelled from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

• Dr Shrikant Shinde, the son of Eknath Shinde, was elected as a Member of Parliament to the Lok Sabha from the Kalyan constituency in 2014. He defeated the NCP’s candidate Anand Paranjape. Dr Shrikant Shinde is an orthopaedic surgeon.

• He quit his school education and started driving an autorickshaw to earn a livelihood for his family. When he was doing odd jobs in his career, in the 1980s, he came into the contact with Shivsena supremo Bal Thackeray and Shivsena’s Thane District Chief Anand Dighe, who assisted him to join Shivsena. ^[6]Hindi Asia Net
  

  Eknath Shinde with Anand Dighe

  

  Eknath Shinde with Balasaheb Thackeray

• In 2014, he resumed his studies after becoming a minister in the BJP-Shivsena government and earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Marathi and Politics subjects with distinction from Vashvantrao Chavan Open University, Maharashtra.
  

  A Young Eknath Shinde

• In the 1970s and 80s, Eknath Shinde was influenced by Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and the workings of the then Thane district president Shri Anand Dighe. In 1980, he was appointed as the Shakha Pramukh of Kisan Nagar soon after he joined Shiv Sena. Soon, he started participating in many political and social agitations initiated by his party including inflation, black marketing, hoarding of essential commodities such as palm oil by traders etc. In 1985, he participated in the Maharashtra-Karnataka Border agitation after which he was detained by the Maharashtra police in Bellary jail for over 40 days.
  

  Eknath Shinde as Shakha Pramukh of Kisan Nagar

• In 1997, he contested the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) elections as a Corporater and won the elections. From 2001 to 2004, he served as a Leader of the house in TMC.

• Soon after the sudden death of the Thane district chief of Shiv Sena, Anand Dighe, in 2001, he was appointed at his place to save Shiv Sena in the district. He was appointed as the chief of the Thane district. Under his leadership and guidance, Shiv Sena came into power in the Thane Municipal Corporation, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation, Ambernath Municipal Council, and Badlapur Municipal Council.

• On 2 June 2000, Eknath Shinde visited Satara along with his 11-year-old son Dipesh and 7-year-old daughter Shubhada. At Satara, while enjoying a boat ride, both of his children drowned accidentally and died on the spot.
  

  Eknath Shinde’s children Dipesh Shinde and Shubhada Shinde

• In 2004, he contested the Assembly Elections from Thane Assembly Constituency and won the elections with a great margin of votes under the leadership of Balasaheb Thackeray. In the following year, he was appointed as the Thane District Head by Shiv Sena. Later, the subsequent assembly elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019 were won by him. He was appointed as the leader of the legislative party of Shiv Sena and the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly soon after the 2014 assembly elections. In January 2019, he was appointed as the Minister for Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) with the additional responsibility of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

• From 2004 to 2014, Shinde as a leader of the Opposition party continuously raised the state issues such as The Cluster Development scheme for dilapidated illegal buildings in Thane and MMR, Thane Metro, a New Extended Thane Station between Thane and Mulund, Water Scarcity, coastal security of the state, Modernization of the Police Force, Inflation, increasing debt of the State, etc. and often spotted delivering speeches on these topics in his political rallies.

• In 2013, on the occasion of Bakrid, Muslims were allowed to offer Namaz at Durgadi Fort. However, at this fort, Hindus were performing their rituals for so many years. This Hindu-Muslim conflict restricted the Hindus to worship at Durgadi Fort on this day. The same incident was opposed by Shiv Sena through a protest following which the police arrested 177 leaders along with Eknath Shinde.
  

  Eknath Shinde after being arrested by the police in 2013

• The projects for Thane city named Cluster Development and Thane Metro were approved under the leadership and assistance of Shinde. He often advocates the issues related to the rehabilitation of lakhs of residents who were thrown out of their houses due to the illegal construction of buildings in Thane.

• In December 2019, the Shivsena joined hands with the BJP-led government in Maharashtra, and then, Eknath Shinde was appointed as the Minister of Public Works. He was given additional responsibility as chairman of the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation (MSRDC).

• In 1996, MSRDC was established for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway project to boost road development in the state. Under this project, the first expressway of the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway, two flyovers in Mumbai, and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai were constructed. However, in 1999, the Congress-NCP led government came to power, and this project was ignored for political reasons. Later, Eknath Shinde assumed charge of the department and vowed to revive MSRDC, and in the next five years, many huge projects including Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway (Samrudhhi Highway), Mumbai-Pune Express Highway Capacity Extension, Third Bridge on Thane Bay at Vashi, Bandra-Versova Sea Link, six-laning and concretization of roads, 27 railway fly pools in Vidarbha, the Thane-Borivli Subway, Versova-Virar Sea-Link, and Gaymukh-Fountain hotel-Ghodbundar advanced routes were completed under the leadership of Shinde.

• During his tenure as a corporator at Thane Municipal Corporation, several crucial measures were adopted and established by Shinde to reduce accidents on the Mumbai-Pune speeding route. These measures include the authorised placing of metal beam crash barriers and wire rope barriers along the road, and in the centre, thermoplastic paint all over the highway and the Rambler were made necessary. He issued notices to establish over two thousand highlighted suggestions boards.

• In January 2019, he was appointed as the Health Minister of Maharashtra by Uddhav Thackeray. As a health minister, he filled the 890 vacancies of MBBS doctors and specialists in several government hospitals, issued regulations to pay contract workers under the National Health Scheme and raised their salaries, started the dialysis centres in sub-district hospitals, approved 60 dispensaries under the ‘Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana’ scheme, a hospital named Mahavir Jain Hospital was started at Hajuri in Thane in collaboration with the Thane Municipality and a service organization, Jito.
  

  Matoshree Gangubai Sambhaji Shinde Hospital

• He remains very active on various social media platforms. On Instagram, he is followed by over 164k people. Over 401k people follow his Facebook page. He often posts pictures and videos of his political rallies and campaigns on social media.

• On 22 November 2020, Eknath Shinde and his son Shrikant Shinde installed a modern strawberry plant in Mahakaleshwar, Madhya Pradesh.
  

  Eknath Shinde while planting seeds of strawberry

• Once, Eknath Shinde was caught driving an electric car at a speed of 137 Kmph on the Samrudhi highway.

• On 20 June 2022, Eknath Shinde was reported missing along with several MLAs of Maharashtra. Soon after the legislative council elections on 20 June 2022, he was reported out of reach. Reportedly, it was rumoured that some of the Shiv Sena MLAs cross-voted in the legislative council elections that would result in the winning of the BJP in the MLC seats. According to some media sources, these MLAs were staying in a hotel in Surat, Gujarat soon after the elections were completed. It was also floating in the news that Eknath Shinde was not happy with the workings of the Shiv Sena party. The Shiv Sena accused him of rebelling against the party. ^[7]India Today In a conversation with a media house, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said,
  

  Eknath Shinde has rebelled fearing ED action. Many MLAs have contacted us that they were taken there forcibly. Gujarat Police has captured our MLAs. Maharashtra police, if given a chance, will bring them back.”

  Raut added that legal actions were initiated against Shinde. He said,

  Action will be initiated against ministers who are with Eknath Shinde at this point of time. We are trying to pacify Eknath Shinde. The entire MVA is together and we will be meeting again tonight. Not 27, 17-18 MLAs are with Eknath Shinde right now.”

• On 21 June 2022, Shiv Sena expelled Shinde from the party following which Shinde stated in a Twitter post that he was a staunch Shiv Sainik of Balasaheb. He wrote,
  

  We are staunch Shiv Sainiks of Balasaheb. Balasaheb has taught us Hindutva. We are going to learn from Balasaheb’s thoughts and Dharamveer Anand Dhighe Saheb’s and we have never cheated for power and never will.”

• After taking oath as the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, he changed his Twitter profile photo to one with Bal Thackeray.
  

  Eknath Shinde’s Twitter profile picture that he changed to that with Bal Thackeray after bcoming the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra

• On 13 March 2024, his nameplate installed outside his office chamber at the state secretariat in south Mumbai was changed with a new name that read ‘Eknath Gangubai Sambhaji Shinde,’ mentioning his mother’s name before that of his father’s name. This was based on a Maharashtra cabinet’s decision that made it mandatory for all children born on or after 1 May 2024 to include the name of their mother in all government documents. Similarly, many other leaders including Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar also changed their nameplates. ^[8]The Indian Express
  

  Eknath Shinde (right), Devendra Fadnavis (centre), and Ajit Pawar (left) showing their new nameplates