Fadnavis, Shinde, Ajit Pawar take oath as members of Maharashtra Assembly

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took oath as a member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly on Saturday, on the first day of the three-day special session of the House. Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar also took oath as members of the Maharashtra assembly.

The three leaders were administered the oath as MLAs by the legislative assembly's pro-tem speaker Kalidas Kolambkar soon after the proceedings of the House began at 11 am.

A special three-day session of the newly-constituted 288-member Maharashtra legislative assembly began here on Saturday, where MLAs will be administered the oath of office.

Senior BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar on Friday took oath as a legislator and was then appointed pro-tem speaker of legislative assembly by Governor C P Radhakrishnan.

A nine-time MLA, Kolambkar is the senior most legislator in the House and represents the Wadala assembly constituency in Mumbai.

As pro-tem speaker, he will administer the oath of office to the rest of the 287 newly-elected MLAs. The assembly speaker's election will be held on December 9, which will be followed by a trust vote of the Devendra Fadnavis-led government and the governor's address to the joint sitting of both the houses of the state legislature. Results of the November 20 assembly polls were declared on November 23, wherein the Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) registered a resounding victory by winning 230 of the 288 assembly seats.

The new government was sworn in on December 5 with Devendra Fadnavis returning as the chief minister, while Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief ministers.