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

Eknath Shinde is an Indian politician who took oath as the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 30 June 2022.

Wiki/Biography

Eknath Shinde was born on Sunday, 9 February 1964 (age 58 years; as of 2022) in Mumbai. His zodiac sign is Aquarius. In 1981, he completed his 11th class at Mangala High School & Junior College, Thane. He also attended Thane Municipal Corporation School, Kisan Nagar, and Rajendra Pal Mangla Hindi High School in Thane. In 2014, after venturing into politics when he became a minister in the BJP-Shivsena government, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in distinction from Yashvantrao Chavan Open University, Maharashtra. His main subjects were Marathi and Politics.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 6″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

His father’s name is Sambhaji Navlu Shinde.

His mother’s name is Gangubai Sambhaji Shinde who died on 18 April 2019.

His brother’s name is Prakash Sambhaji Shinde who is a councillor at Thane Municipal Corporation.

Wife & Children

He is married to Lata Eknath Shinde who is in the construction business. The couple has a son named Shrikant Shinde who is a politician and an orthopaedic surgeon. Dr Shrikant Shinde contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Kalyan constituency in 2014 and was elected as a Member of Parliament by defeating his opponent Anand Paranjape, the NCP’s candidate. Two of his children named Dipesh Shinde, a son, and Shubhada Shinde, a daughter, died on 2 June 2000.

Address

He resides at Bungalow No. 5 & 6, Landmark Society, Louiswadi Service Road, Thane-400604, Maharashtra.

Career

Eknath Shinde studied till eleventh class and quit his studies to earn a livelihood for his family. In the 1980s, when he was in the autorickshaw driving business, he was introduced to Shivsena supremo Bal Thackeray and Shivsena’s Thane District Chief Anand Dighe, who helped him to join Shiv Sena.

Soon after joining Shiv Sena, he was elected as the Shakha Pramukh of Kisan Nagar in 1980.

Subsequently, he started initiating several political and social rallies, which were focused on the issues such as inflation, black marketing, hoarding of essential commodities such as palm oil by traders etc. He was detained by the police for forty days for participating in the Maharashtra-Karnataka Border agitation. He was appointed as the Corporator of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) in 1997. In 2001, he was nominated as a Leader of the house in TMC, and he served the position till 2004. After the demise of Anand Dighe, he was appointed as the chief of the Thane district in 2001. Gradually, Shiv Sena grabbed the kingship in the Thane Municipal Corporation, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation, Ambernath Municipal Council, and Badlapur Municipal Council under Eknath Shinde’s guidance. In 2004, Bal Thackeray gave him the opportunity to contest the assembly elections, and he was elected as MLA from the Thane legislative assembly constituency with a great margin of votes.

In 2005, Shiv Sena designated him as the Thane District Head. The consecutive legislative assembly elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019 were won by him that led to his appointment as the leader of the legislative party of Shiv Sena and the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly. Eknath Shinde was designated as the Minister of Public Works in December 2019. He was granted the additional duty as chairman of the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation (MSRDC). In 2019, he was designated as the Health Minister of Maharashtra, and soon, he hit the headlines for filling the 890 posts of MBBS doctors and specialists in several hospitals, issuing regulations to pay salaries to the contract workers under the National Health Scheme, establishing dialysis centres in sub-district hospitals, authorising 60 dispensaries under the ‘Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana’ scheme. He also began a Mahavir Jain Hospital at Hajuri in Thane in a joint venture with the Thane Municipality and an NGO named Jito.

He was designated as the Minister for Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) with the additional responsibility of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry in 2019. On 30 June 2022, he was sworn in as the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Assets/Properties

Movable Assets

• Cash: Rs. 2,81,000

• Deposits in Banks: Rs. 32,64,760

• Bonds, Debentures and Shares: Rs. 30,591

• LIC or other insurance Policies: Rs. 50,08,930

• Personal loans/advance: Rs. 1,89,247

• Motor Vehicles: Rs. 46,55,490

• Jewellery: Rs. 25,87,500

• Other assets: Rs. 50,44,948

Immovable Assets

• Agricultural Land: Rs. 28,00,000

• Commercial Buildings: Rs. 30,00,000

• Residential Buildings: Rs. 8,87,50,000

Liabilities: Rs. 3,74,60,261

Facts/Trivia

• His full name is Eknath Sambhaji Shinde.

• Eknath Shinde and his 11-year-old son Dipesh and 7-year-old daughter Shubhada visited Satara on 2 June 2000. Both of his children died on the spot after drowning in the lake when they were enjoying a boat ride.
  

  Eknath Shinde’s children Dipesh Shinde and Shubhada Shinde

• 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.

• During his appointment as a Leader of the Opposition party, he constantly raised the state issues like 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.

• Some of the major projects in the Thane district like Cluster Development and Thane Metro were authorised under the administration of Shinde. Shinde regularly stood for the rehabilitation policies for lakhs of residents who became homeless due to the illegal construction of buildings in Thane over the period of time.

• According to some media sources, once, Eknath Shinde was captured driving an electric car at a speed of 137 Kmph on the Samrudhi highway.

• MSRDC was a Mumbai-Pune Expressway project, which was initiated in 1996 to encourage road development in the state. The first expressway of the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway, two flyovers in Mumbai, and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai were constructed under this scheme. However, soon after the Congress-NCP government came to power in 1999, this project lagged behind because of some political reasons. Later, when Shive Sena came into power in Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde was given the charge of the MSRDC department. In the next five years, under the administration of Shinde, many huge projects such as 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 achieved.

• In 2013, at least 177 leaders of Shiv Sena including Eknath Shinde protested on the occasion of Bakrid at Durgadi Fort where Muslims were allowed to offer Namaz. The protest demanded that at the Fort, Hindus were performing their rituals for so many years and the permission of Namaz on the occasion of Bakrid halted the worship of Hindus. During the protests, Eknath Shinde, along with the 177 leaders, were arrested for protesting against the permission of Namaz.
  

  Eknath Shinde after being arrested by the police in 2013

• When he was appointed as the Corporator of the Thane Municipal Corporation, Shinde adopted several measures including 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 etc to reduce road accidents on the Mumbai-Pune speeding route.

• Eknath Shinde, along with his son, Shrikant Shinde, established a strawberry factory that would manufacture strawberries by using modern techniques in Mahakaleshwar, Madhya Pradesh on 22 November 2020.
  

  Eknath Shinde while planting seeds of strawberry

• On 20 June 2022, Eknath Shinde came into the limelight when he hit the headlines for cross-voting in the legislative council elections in June 2022 along with several other MLAs of Shiv Sena. Reportedly, this cross-voting would result in the winning of the BJP in the MLC seats. Soon after the elections, he was reported missing along with his companion MLAs, and it was rumoured that he was staying in a hotel in Surat, Gujarat. Soon, according to some media sources, it was disclosed that Eknath Shinde was unhappy with the workings of Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut stated in a media conversation that Eknath Shinde rebelled against the party virtues. 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 actions proceeded 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, Eknath Shinde was expelled from the Shiv Sena. Soon after he was discharged from the party, Shinde tweeted that he was a determined Shiv Sainik of Balasaheb and had never cheated anyone for the greed of power. 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.”

• A day after he became the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, he changed the profile picture of his Twitter handle to one with Bal Thackeray.