‘Tax’ on Mercedes

Uddhav Thackeray mocks Eknath Shinde over past Mercedes car allegations, while Ajit Pawar jokes about Shinde's struggle with his deputy chair position.

“You didn’t hike the tax on Mercedes cars, did you,” Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray quipped as he ran into chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the Vidhan Bhavan on Monday. Fadnavis, along with his deputies, Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, was on his way to the press room for the post-budget press conference when he crossed paths with Thackeray.

‘Tax’ on Mercedes

As Fadnavis greeted Thackeray with folded hands, the Sena (UBT) chief tossed the barb, not at him but at Shinde, his bête noire and Shiv Sena chief, who was trailing Fadnavis. Thackeray’s taunt referenced the allegation made by senior Sena leader Neelam Gorhe, that the Thackerays would ask for “two Mercedes cars in exchange for party posts” when Uddhav headed the undivided Sena. Shinde, who stoutly stood up for Gore when the Sena (UBT) slammed her for her comment, looked the other way as he walked past Thackeray on Monday.

That ‘chair’ again!

“He won’t let it go, will he,” smiled Ajit Pawar, as Eknath Shinde pointed to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s chair. Pawar took a playful dig at his colleague during the post-budget press conference on Monday. The meet was addressed by Fadnavis and his two deputies, Pawar and Shinde, who were seated on either side of him.

Shinde, still smarting from being denied the chief minister’s post after the Mahayuti alliance was re-reelected to head the state government in December last year, remarked that the three of them heading the Mahayuti government remained constant even though he and Fadnavis had exchanged chairs. Amid the laughter that followed, Pawar turned to Fadnavis and quipped: “He (Shinde) just can’t let it go.”

Pawar’s remark was aimed at Shinde, who had reluctantly settled for deputy chief ministership. Shinde shot back at Pawar, saying his “chair was fixed”. Pawar swatted back, “I can’t help it if you couldn’t keep your chair fixed!”