Devendra Fadnavis will take oath as Chief Minister of Maharashtra today at Azad Maidan
Mumbai: On Thursday, Devendra Fadnavis, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, will take the oath of office as Maharashtra’s chief minister at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the event to swear in two deputy chief ministers: Ajit Pawar of the NCP and Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena.
In the meanwhile, the vicinity of Azad Maidan in Mumbai was plastered with posters of Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar, and Maharashtra CM-designate Fadnavis.
A number of NDA leaders and chief ministers will attend the oath-taking event.
In order to assert their claim to establish the Mahayuti administration, Fadnavis, Shinde, and Pawar met with Governor CP Radhakrishnan, putting an end to the protracted tension over who would be appointed to the top position.
Fadnavis was overwhelmingly chosen as the leader of the Maharashtra BJP Legislative Party on Wednesday, marking his third term in the top position.
Vijay Rupani, the central observer for the BJP and a former Gujarat chief minister, said at the parliamentary party meeting in Vidhan Bhawan that Fadnavis had been unanimously chosen as the party’s leader.
After days of political wrangling and conjecture, the decision was made because Eknath Shinde desired to be Maharashtra’s chief minister. The BJP, however, resisted, and Shinde subsequently said that he would support PM Modi’s choice.
During an early morning ceremony at Raj Bhavan in 2019, Pawar was sworn in as the deputy chief minister and Fadnavis as the chief minister.
Fadnavis ran from the Nagpur South West seat in the just-concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections, defeating Congressman Prafulla Vinodrao Gudadhe. Since 1999, this seat has been his stronghold.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti coalition won a resounding victory with 235 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024. With 132 seats, the BJP became the single-largest party, marking a major turning point in the election.
With 57 and 41 seats, respectively, the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party also saw significant increases.
However, with the Congress gaining just 16 seats, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a significant defeat. The NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) only managed 10 seats, while its coalition partner, Shiv Sena (UBT), took home 20 seats.
