Eknath Sambhaji Shinde (born 9 February 1964) is an Indian politician who has served as the 10th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, alongside Sunetra Pawar. He is the chairman of the Shiv Sena since February 2023 and earlier served as the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 30 June 2022 to 5 December 2024.
Shinde represents the Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency of Thane in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, a seat he has held since 2009. Prior to this, he was the MLA from the Thane constituency between 2004 and 2009.
Shinde rose to wider political prominence in June 2022, when he led a factional split within the Shiv Sena. The development triggered the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis and led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government. Shinde and a group of rebel MLAs withdrew support from the MVA and extended support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was then in opposition. Following the resignation of the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray without facing the floor test, Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister on 30 June 2022.
In February 2023, the Election Commission of India ruled in favour of Shinde's faction, granting it the official Shiv Sena name and party symbol on the basis of its legislative majority and the 2019 electoral performance. The Thackeray faction challenged the matter before the Supreme Court of India, seeking disqualification of the rebel MLAs. In May 2023, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict holding that the decision of the then Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, to call a floor test was not in accordance with law. While the Court did not reverse the Election Commission's decision or disqualify the MLAs directly, it observed that the recognition of Shinde's faction as the original Shiv Sena by the then Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar, was not in line with constitutional principles.