CM hits road again, draws cheers as well as sneers

MUMBAI: For a chief minister, Eknath Sambhaji Shinde has the roadie's passion for travel; he invariably makes his way to the spot to rap errant officials, dispense quick justice and distribute aid to the needy.Critics dismiss his sojourns as grand roadshows aimed at garnering votes and hogging the limelight. A section of the bureaucracy thinks the CM away from his work as a policymaker is not a good idea as critical matters of state can suffer. However, such criticism hardly bothers the feisty Thane trooper. His snow-white Toyota-Lexus is on the move, rain or sunshine.Shinde has maintained that his absence from the state secretariat has in no way affected his official duties. "I read and sign urgent files even when I am travelling," he said at a party workers' conclave recently.Last week, Shinde scrambled up a hill to reach Irshalwadi-a remote and hilly tribal hamlet in Raigad district, which was buried under a massive landslide that killed over 80 villagers. Early this month he had similarly rushed to Buldhana, with deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in tow, following a bus accident on the Samruddhi highway in which 25 passengers were charred to death. This Sunday, he was inspecting the Thane-Nashik highway.Political experts said the former Shiv Sainik views his role as a CM through the prism of the Shiv Sena's rough and ready brand of politics, which requires contact with the masses and meting out instant justice. Shinde has styled himself as the antithesis to Uddhav Thackeray who drew criticism for restricting public interactions and limiting access to a chosen few."Actually, Shinde functions more like a 'karyakarta' who abhors the executive, and its 'fatwas' and government gazettes," said political commentator Vishwas Sohoni on Sunday."Shinde's voyages could well be part of a PR strategy but it seems to be working. He has been gathering eyeballs and that matters a lot. Last week, images of Shinde stepping into a murky nullah in a Mumbai suburb were flickering on the television screen all through the day," said Ahok Dhamanaskar, a former official who has witnessed the tenure of seven CMs in Mantralaya.He likened Shinde to Sharad Pawar who, after the 1995 serial blasts in Mumbai, presided over a meeting of BMC, MTNL and police officials right under the damaged Bombay Stock Exchange building in south Mumbai on a muggy afternoon."Politicians often find bureaucracy and its paraphernalia cumbersome. With the next election breathing down their neck, they are eager to expedite the government machinery and assure voters that they are doing something," said Sohoni.