BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the 18th Chief Minister of Maharashtra in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan on Thursday in the presence of PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other NDA leaders. 

Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and NCP’s Ajit Pawar were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers.

This oath-taking ceremony marked Fadnavis’s third stint as Maharashtra Chief Minister. The 54-year-old leader first served in the top post from October 2014 to November 19, becoming the youngest CM of the state. Fadnavis’s second stint, though, lasted only five days, from November 23 to 28, 2019 after the undivided Shiv Sena walked out of an alliance with the BJP. 

Shinde, who was the 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.  However, after Shinde was requested by his MLAs to accept the post of DyCM, he confirmed his decision and took oath along with ally and NCP chief Pawar. 

The formation of the new government comes after two weeks of intense negotiations following the November 20 state assembly polls and results on November 23.

Grand ceremony

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President JP Nadda, and other National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders were present at Azad Maidan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Devendra Fadnavis.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami were also present at the event.
Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Chirag Paswan, along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also graced the occasion.

Prominent celebrities such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, and Madhuri Dixit were among those in attendance.

On Wednesday, Fadnavis, with Shinde and Ajit Pawar, met Governor Radhakrishnan to formally stake claim to form a government, presenting letters of support from the coalition partners. 

Before that, Fadnavis was elected as leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting on Wednesday morning.

Special arrangements were made to accommodate 40,000 BJP supporters and a separate seating arrangement was made for 2,000 VVIPs, including leaders from various religions for the grand ceremony.

More than 4,000 police personnel were deployed for security in and around the swearing-in venue. 

The Mahayuti alliance won a whopping 230 seats out of 288 Assembly seats in the November 20 elections. The BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 132 seats, while the Shiv Sena and NCP got 57 and 41 seats respectively.