The Age of Betrayal

Eknath Sambhaji Shinde's tenure as chief minister has been anything but smooth

- Shweta Desai

UNLIKE his rivals, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde did not launch his campaign for the upcoming elections with dusty rallies, chest-thumping speeches or fiery public confrontations with political opponents. The former autorickshaw driver, who fought his way from Thane’s subaltern corners to the top of Maharashtra’s political ladder, could well have started his electoral outreach much before his allies and rivals on the silver screen.

Dharmaveer, a two-part Marathi biopic about Shiv Sena’s suburban giant Anand Dighe, Shinde’s mentor, depicts his rise to power and his close bond with Dighe. But one scene, which perhaps, inadvertently, reflects Dighe’s and the undivided Sena’s stance on political gaddars (traitors), visibly chafes against the film’s sympathetic and saccharine-dipped portrayal of Shinde. Midway through the film, a tense moment highlights Dighe’s reaction to political betrayal in a mayoral election in Thane in 1988, where Sena candidate Prakash Paranjpe lost by one vote due to defection. Enraged, Dighe mutters, “gaddaranna kshama nahi” (traitors deserve no mercy), as Shinde and other Sena workers watch. Dighe then orders his men to chase and punish the traitors. This cinematic moment mirrors the real-life consequences of betrayal within the party. Shinde has faced this challenge since 2022, when he and other party MLAs rebelled against the Sena leadership, toppling the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and plunging Maharashtra into political turmoil.

The rebellion occurred soon after the premiere of the movie in May that year when Shinde was serving as urban development minister in the Thackeray-led cabinet. After a dramatic nine-day crisis, Shinde staked his claim to form a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), becoming Maharashtra’s 26th CM. However, the label of “gaddar” (traitor) continues to stick to him.