"I consider myself a common man CM. My protocol does not come in my way. I go directly to the people, listen and talk to them... I believe that the farmers have the first right to our government's treasury... We gave Rs 15000 crores in 2 years to compensate for the losses... The Opposition asks if this is the work of the CM, to go on the road. I ask if it is the CM's job to sit at home, is his job only to go live on Facebook. We are people who work face-to-face... Ours is not a deaf and dumb government," Shinde said in an interview with ANI.
The Maharashtra assembly elections are scheduled for November 20 with the results on November 23. The Chief Minister said the "Ladli Yojana" has been a "super hit" and he is proud that within a short period of time, people have started calling his government their own.
"People's money should be spent to save people's lives. Wherever I am, in the ministry, at home, in the car, in a programme, anywhere, if a slip of CM Relief Fund comes, I immediately sign it. One lakh lives have been saved, this is a matter of great fortune for me," he said.
The Shiv Sena leader also played down reports of him being projected as the CM candidate by the Mahayuti alliance. "Work, development of the state, lifestyle change, our government has done all of this... In the Lok Sabha elections, the vote share moved towards the Shiv Sena. The same will be repeated in these elections also... I am the team leader as of now. Our team is working... Everyone in our team is equal... Our goal is to bring the Mahayuti government and develop the state..."
While the BJP has been keen on not fielding a candidate against Raj Thackeray's son in Mahim, Eknath Shinde remained non-committal. Shinde has put up strongman Sadav Sarvankar on the seat.
"He (Raj Thackeray) was with us in the Lok Sabha elections. I had a conversation with him as to what is his strategy, and he said to let Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP decide first. But they directly fielded their candidates. We also have an MLA there. I talked to him... The workers should also be looked after while contesting elections. We should not let the morale of the workers down... Certainly, today we have an alliance of Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP Ajit Pawar. We are contesting the elections under the same alliance, we have RPI's Athavale and Jan Suraaj... We will contest the elections and will win with a majority," he said.
Eknath Shinde also tore into Congress after its Chief Mallikarjun Kharge had warned the party not to promise freebies beyond the state budget.
"He (Kharge) is correct because they do not have the intention to give. They don't know how to give, they know how to take... If PM Modi sends one rupee then the entire rupee goes into the DBT (Direct Bank Transfer). They have not learnt to give. We followed the guidelines of the RBI and the Central Government. We can take a loan of 25% of the GDP. Our loan is 17.5% and we are within the 3% of FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act). We follow every guideline, we have not violated anything, therefore we have kept the entire year's budget for it, therefore this scheme will not be stopped. No one will stop the Ladli Behen Yojana," he said.
The Ladli Behen Yojna has been one of the strongest campaign points for the Yuti alliance and Shinde is confident that it will yeild results for the Yuti in the elections.
"All of this was unexpected for the Opposition, they think we're just puppets. They did not know that we would run such a big scheme and take development forward. The industry is also trusting us. Our government works for the people and the previous government used to work for itself, to build its property, for its own benefit... Some of their leaders used to say, khata khat, khata khat, not even a single rupee was given. Our government put the money in people's accounts, pat pata, pat," he said.
The money for the Ladli Behen scheme should not be stopped because of the Model Code of Conduct, that is why we gave the November money in October, the Chief Minister said.
"Elections are on November 20, results are on 23. After that, we will give the money for December in November... I belong to a poor farmer family. I have seen poverty. I used to think that whenever I would get the power, I would do something for my beloved sisters, mothers, farmers, brothers and senior citizens... As soon as I got the power, I told both my deputy CMs what we had to do and we did. The Opposition has not been able to digest this... They are going to lose, they have started defaming it," Shinde said. (Agency inputs)
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