Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday expressed confidence that the Mahayuti government will get a thumping majority as people will vote for development and work done by his dispensation. Shinde, who heads the ruling Shiv Sena and seeking his re-election from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi assembly constituency in Thane, was talking to reporters after casting his vote along with his family members, including his MP son Shrikant Shinde.
He said the election is a festival of democracy that will take Maharashtra towards a brighter future and make India an economic superpower. Shinde urged voters across the state to actively participate in the electoral process. "This festival is our opportunity to take part in building a stronger Maharashtra. Every citizen should fulfil the duty to vote. I humbly request everyone to cast a vote and make our democracy prosperous. We must ensure a high voter turnout today," he said.
"People have seen their (Maha Vikas Aghadi's) two-and-a-half years of rule vis-a-vis the work done by us in the same amount of time. People will vote for development and the work done by us," Shinde said. "We restarted the development work that was stalled...In the last five years, people have seen our path of development. They know who has truly worked for the state's progress," he said.
Shinde said people know the welfare schemes implemented by his government for women, youth, farmers and senior citizens. "The Mahayuti government will win with a thumping majority," Shinde said. The chief minister said in 2019 people saw that a government was formed in a wrong way, contrary to their expectations. People have not forgotten that, he said.
Shinde was referring to the then Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray joining hands with the Congress and the National Congress Party after the Shiv Sena-BJP won the 2019 assembly polls. Voting makes democracy stronger, he said and urged people to vote in large numbers. Shinde's rebellion against the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray led to a split in the Shiv Sena, and also to the collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022.
