Devendra Fadnavis to take oath as Maharashtra CM today, PM Modi to attend

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis will be sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Thursday.

Two deputy chief ministers, NCP leader Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, will also be sworn in at the ceremony in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Meanwhile, the posters of Maharashtra CM-designate Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar covered the area around Azad Maidan in Mumbai.

The oath-taking ceremony will see the participation of several NDA chief ministers and leaders.

Ending the long-drawn suspense over who would get the top job, Fadnavis, Shinde, and Pawar met Governor CP Radhakrishnan to stake their claim to form the Mahayuti government.

It will be Fadnavis' third term in the top post after being unanimously elected as the Leader of the Maharashtra BJP Legislative Party on Wednesday.

At the legislature party meeting held in Vidhan Bhawan, former Gujarat CM and BJP's central observer Vijay Rupani announced that Fadnavis has been unanimously elected the BJP legislature party leader. 

The decision came after days of speculation and political manoeuvring as Eknath Shinde wanted to become the chief minister of Maharashtra. However, the BJP, refused to budge and later, Shinde said he would back the PM Modi's pick.

In the year 2019, Pawar had taken oath as the deputy chief minister with Fadnavis as the chief minister in an early morning ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

In the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly polls, Fadnavis fought the elections from the Nagpur South West constituency and defeated Prafulla Vinodrao Gudadhe of Congress. This seat has been his stronghold since 1999.

The Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 witnessed a decisive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance, securing a landslide win with 235 seats. The results marked a significant milestone for the BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats.  Maharashtra CM swearing-in ceremony: Mumbai Police issues traffic advisory

The Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party also made notable gains, with 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

While, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a major setback with Congress winning just 16 seats. Its alliance partner, Shiv Sena (UBT), won 20 seats, while the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) secured only 10 seats.