Eknath Shinde to take oath as Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Highlights:

• Eknath Shinde, a rebel Shiv Sena MLA, will be sworn in as the new chief minister of Maharashtra.
• The dissident Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde and the BJP will form Maharashtra’s new government after nearly ten days of intense power struggles. 
• The Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s authority in the state came to an end the day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as chief minister. 
• Uddhav Thackeray resigned as chief minister of Maharashtra due to a mutiny within his own Shiv Sena party and the realisation that he would not be able to demonstrate his government’s majority in the House.
• His resignation came after the Supreme Court declined to impose a stay on a floor test that the Governor had ordered.

• After entering politics, Shinde (58), once an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane, a city next to Mumbai, soon rose to become a crucial Sena leader in the Thane-Palghar region and is renowned for his combative stance on matters of public importance.
• He joined the party in 1980 under the influence of Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb Thackeray and began working as a Sainik.
• He was involved in a number of agitations during that time, including the Maharashtra-Karnataka Agitation on the status of the Belgauvi, which resulted in his 40-day imprisonment.
• Eknath Shinde served as the government of Maharashtra’s Cabinet Minister for Public Works and Urban Development.
• He now represents Thane, Maharashtra’s Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency in the legislative assembly.
• Before he precipitated a serious political crisis, Eknath Sambhaji Shinde served as the PWD Cabinet Minister for the Maharashtra State Government (MSRDC, Public Undertaking) and is currently a Shiv Sena member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi (Vidhan Sabha constituency).