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Maharashtra Chief Minister Oath Ceremony: The oath-taking ceremony comes after much speculation over who will get the top job but on Wednesday Shinde backed Fadnavis for Maharashtra chief minister.
Maharashtra CM Swearing In Ceremony: BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra CM, along with deputies Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde (left) and NCP’s Ajit Pawar (right). (IMAGE: YouTube)
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Thursday, joined by his deputies Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde and Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Ajit Pawar, who also took their oath.
Maharashtra governor CP Radhakrishnan presided over the ceremony and administered their oath as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present.
The ceremony was a show of power not just for the Mahayuti but also for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Along with PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP party chief JP Nadda, defence minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and roadways minister Nitin Gadkari attended the ceremony.
Firebrand BJP Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Assam, Yogi Adityanath and Himanta Biswa Sarma, respectively, attended the ceremony with Tripura counterpart Manik Saha.
Also seen were Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Janata Dal (Secular) leader and union minister HD Kumaraswamy also attended the event.
Also present were tinsel town stars Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Shraddha Kapoor and Varun Dhawan. Several major industrialists also attended the ceremony. Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar was also seen.
Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani and his family were seen at the ceremony sat with Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan.
Intense Parlays
The oath-taking ceremony was preceded by a week of intense speculation in political quarters but the Mahayuti – the alliance of BJP, NCP and Sena in Maharashtra – trio agreed on the division of power after intense discussions this week.
Shinde and Pawar extended their support to the BJP veteran on Wednesday evening. The Sena chief said he is extending support to Fadnavis the same way the latter did when Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and former Maharashtra chief minister, who now heads a separate faction of Shiv Sena named Shiv Sena (UBT), two-and-a-half-years ago.
Shinde, who was chief minister in the previous Mahayuti coalition government, was reportedly not happy as he had to cede the top post to the ally BJP, and was reluctant to take the deputy CM post.
Fadnavis, as well as Shiv Sena leaders requested Shinde that he should join the new government as deputy CM, his party colleague Uday Samant said. Shinde finalised his decision hours before today’s ceremony.
Both of them also arrived together for the ceremony at Raj Bhawan.
At 54, Devendra Fadnavis, representing Nagpur South West, led the BJP to a decisive win with 132 seats and cemented his position as the clear favourite for Chief Minister.
Along with Shiv Sena and NCP, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition now commands a dominant majority of 230 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.
