As Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s final act in the winter session—his reply to the Opposition’s last week resolution—turned out to be a recall of the powershift story that completed six months on Friday, the Opposition leader in the Assembly Ajit Pawar advised him to be large-hearted in ignoring the criticism and act like a head of the state that is populated by 13 crore people.

In his long speech on the last day of the winter session in Nagpur, Shinde consumed more time to respond to criticism that came from his former boss Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aaditya and party colleagues. He cautioned his critics to not test his patience, because, “Main khamosh hun fir bhi sab janata hun, baat nikalegi to fir dur talak jayegi (I may be mum but I know everything; when I begin to dig out it will go even deeper)”.