Eknath Shinde, the farmer

He spent some time at his farm at his ancestral village, Dare in Satara. Shinde’s entourage had some guests—a few television channel crews

Earlier this week, while the controversy over Airbus-Tata military aircraft manufacturing project going to neighbouring Gujarat raged on, chief minister Eknath Shinde headed to the hills of Satara district in the Sahyadri ranges. He spent some time at his farm at his ancestral village, Dare in Satara. Shinde’s entourage had some guests—a few television channel crews. Next day, several Marathi television channels beamed stories on Shinde, wearing a full sleeve maroon T shirt and blue pants showing around his farm—right from turmeric plantation to lemongrass to cowshed which he is fond of and an aquaculture pond. He spoke about his completely automated drip irrigation scheme, how he is growing organic strawberries and has even grown expensive plants that are used for perfumes. Shinde was also seen trying a wheel hoe in a turmeric plantation and planting strawberry plants.

Shinde was also seen trying a wheel hoe in a turmeric plantation and planting strawberry plants. (PTI)

The expansive farm in the scenic area near Mahabaleshwar hill station is Shinde’s favourite vacation place which he visits at least a couple of times a year. As he drove around in an electric buggy, Shinde did not forget to tell the media how he comes from a common farmer family and used to toil in the farm with his siblings. He also proudly said how his son Shrikant (who is Member of Parliament from Kalyan) takes keen interest in new experiments in the farm and even its marketing. He also made it a point to mention that he often visits a goshala (cowshed) wherever he goes—something which his current allies would love to see.

When a mediaperson asked about the controversy over state losing industrial projects, Shinde quickly pointed out that the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had explained everything and exposed the Opposition’s agenda. Ironically, Shinde had avoided commenting on the issue for the first couple of days as the Opposition trained its guns on his government.

CM Shinde might be finding solitude at his farm in faraway Satara when he wants a break but back in Mantralaya the crowd of visitors at his sixth-floor office makes it difficult for the staff of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to catch a breath. Often when Shinde is in office, the CMO is overcrowded with visitors. Most visitors are the people who comes with the MLAs from Shinde faction. The scene is worse on the days when weekly cabinet meetings are held and all ministers are present in Mantralaya. Several MLAs from the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena land up at the CMO with a small crowd of supporters. Peeved CMO officials have now decided to restrict the entry of visitors. As such, the CMO is now being kept out of bounds for the visitors till 2 pm. Even MLAs would be allowed only with their personal assistants. The CMO officials are now hoping that they will get some quiet time to handle their work.

When Rane and Raut got engaged in a verbal war

Tempers ran high at a meeting of district planning and development committee (DPDC) at Sindhudurg collector office on Friday as a verbal dual broke out between union minister Narayan Rane and local Member of Parliament Vinayak Raut who is from Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena. Rane and Raut do not see eye to eye. In fact, Rane clan has zero tolerance for Vinayak Raut who had defeated Rane’s elder son Nilesh in Lok Sabha elections. Elected representatives in a district such as the MLAs and MPs are members of the DPDC which is headed by the guardian minister of the district. Just as the meeting was beginning, Raut asked the officials when the developmental work initiated by MVA government but put on hold by Shinde faction-BJP government would resume. Rane objected to the same and insisted that the subjects listed on the agenda of the meeting should be taken up first. Raut joined an issue with him saying that the guardian minister should speak about him and not the latter. Just when it looked like the meeting would turn into a vocal slugfest, guardian minister Ravindra Chavan said the agenda would be taken up first and other issues later. It is unlikely to be last tussle between the two warring leaders from Konkan.

Aaditya’s Twitter poll

As the ruling Shinde faction-BJP alliance and the opposition were engaged in a bitter tussle over the Airbus-Tata controversy, Thackeray scion Aaditya challenged chief minister Shinde for a debate on the issue of Vedanta-Foxconn and other industries going out of the state. While Shinde chose not to respond to his challenge, Aaditya took to Twitter, seeking a poll. He asked the people whether Shinde would accept his challenge for one-on-one debate. Out of 21,000 odd people who responded to his vote till Friday evening, 74 percent said no while 26 per cent felt Shinde would do so. Over to the CM camp…