Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra CM; Shinde, Ajit Pawar as his deputies

Nearly two weeks after the Mahayuti alliance pulled off a resounding victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister on Thursday. 

Former chief minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the deputy CMs at a grand ceremony held at the sprawling Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.

Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office to Fadnavis and his deputies. This is the third time that Fadnavis, an MLA from Nagpur, has been sworn-in as the state’s chief minister.

Other members of the cabinet will likely take oath before the winter session of the assembly starts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goel, Nirmala Sitharaman and Shivraj Singh Chouhan were present at the swearing-in which came after days-long speculations about the power-sharing formula among the ruling allies.

Chief ministers of various NDA-ruled states—including Yogi Adityanath, Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mohan Yadav and Pramod Sawant—attended the ceremony.

Several business leaders, Bollywood actors and sports-persons were also present at the star-studded event. 

Police made special arrangements to accommodate the more than 40,000 party supporters who attended the oath taking ceremony. At least 3,500 police personnel and 520 officers were deployed for security arrangements.

The BJP became the single largest party, pocketing 132 seats in the 288-member house, while its allies, the Shiv Sena and the NCP, bagged 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

Suspense continued till the last minute on whether Shinde, who was reportedly upset over the proposed allocation of portfolios, would take up the deputy chief minister’s post. According to reports, the Shiv Sena has been demanding some important portfolios, including Home.

Fadnavis was elected the BJP Legislature Party leader at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs on Wednesday, though the party had informally announced that he was the front-runner to the top post.