The newly elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Maharashtra, Sushilkumar Shinde, told party legislators on Thursday that they must fight communal forces to the best of their ability and take Maharashtra back to its pre-eminent position - industrially, socially, and politically.
Addressing a CLP meeting soon after his election, Shinde said no one should be allowed to divide the state. "Our primary responsibility is to serve the poor, if we can't do that then we should not be in power," he said.
With just 18 months left for the state to go to the polls, Shinde told the CLP not to forget that the party and the government must work in tandem.
It is our job, Shinde said, "to show that hum kissise kam nahin."
Asked if eighteen months as head of a government was too short a period to deliver results, he said: "That does not matter. I have to work hard and take everyone into confidence."
Asked about his Dalit background, he said: "Maharashtra is the land of Shahu Maharaj and Mahatma Phule. They made Maharashtra number 1."
On the prospects of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, a key constituent of the Democratic Front government, contesting the next assembly election together, the CM-designate said: "We will see the situation then. We will see what the communal forces are doing and then decide [on our moves]."
Shinde said his friendship with some top Shiv Sena leaders would have no bearing on his administrative functioning. "That [personal equations] is different from politics."
On the grave financial crisis facing the state, he said a debt liability of Rs 70,000 crore has put a severe strain on the state's economic health.