Role reversal: Fadnavis sworn in as Maharashtra CM, Shinde his deputy

Ajit Pawar also takes oath as deputy CM at event attended by Modi, Shah, among others

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in as the new chief minister (CM) of Maharashtra at a grand ceremony held at Mumbai’s iconic Azad Maidan on Thursday evening.

 

With Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena taking oath as deputy CM, the event ended the uncertainty over whether he would join the government. Shinde’s party had insisted that he get the home portfolio. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar also took oath as deputy CM.

 

Shinde prefaced his oath of office by invoking Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and his mentor Anand Dighe, and also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, both of whom were present at the ceremony, which was also attended by several Union ministers, CMs, captains of industry, and Bollywood actors.

 

 

No other ministers took oath, which was evidence that the three allies in the Mahayuti — the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP — are still trying to work out the portfolio allocation. The government formation came about after 13 days of negotiations following the poll results announced on November 23.

 

The CM and his two deputies also held their first cabinet meeting in the evening, with the first decision being approving a proposal to provide financial assistance of Rs 500,000 to a patient awaiting bone-marrow transplant. Addressing a press conference later, Fadnavis said the Speaker’s election will take place during the special session of the Assembly from December 7 to 9, and the cabinet will be expanded before the winter session.

 

“We don't want to indulge in vendetta politics,” Fadnavis said, referring to the depleted numbers of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the Assembly. Fadnavis also called for an "overhaul of political culture" in the state. There should be political communication, he said, referring to the invitation for the swearing-in ceremony extended by him to prominent political leaders like Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, who did not attend the event.

 

At the oath-taking ceremony, the names that were announced of the three — Fadnavis, Shinde and Pawar — included the names of not just their respective fathers, but also that of their mothers. The support of the women electorate has been crucial to the Mahayuti’s massive electoral win.

 

The Maharashtra council of ministers can have 43 members. Sources said the allies have agreed that each party would be entitled to one minister against six of its MLAs. So, the BJP, with 132 MLAs, could get up to 22 ministers, the Sena a little less than a dozen ministers, and the NCP eight-nine ministers.

 

The Sena put an end to the speculation over Shinde taking oath a couple of hours before Shah landed to attend the evening ceremony. While Shinde, who served as the CM from June 2022, is keen that he should get the home portfolio, Fadnavis held the portfolio when he was the CM from 2014 to 2019 and also when he was the deputy CM to Shinde from June 2022 onwards. The BJP is unlikely to part with the home portfolio.

 

"Devendra Fadnavis personally requested Shinde to join his team. Shinde respected the request," Shiv Sena’s Uday Samant said in the afternoon. There was no friction among the allies, he claimed. "Shinde made a massive contribution to Maharashtra (during his tenure as CM). It was necessary that he join the government for the sake of the state's people and his followers. He was thinking that he should make somebody else deputy CM and he himself should work to increase the party's strength. We flatly rejected this proposal," Samant, a minister in the outgoing government, said.

 

Sanjay Shirsat, another Sena leader, had said earlier this week that the party must get the home portfolio as the BJP was getting the top post. But Samant denied that Shinde was putting pressure on the BJP over certain portfolios. "If Shinde wanted to mount pressure on the BJP, why would he make a statement that he would accept any decision of Modi and Shah," he asked.

 

Prime Minister Modi, several Union ministers, including Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Nitin Gadkadi, and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) CMs, such as UP’s Yogi Adityanath, Andhra Pradesh’s N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, attended the ceremony.

 

Industry captains, including Reliance Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata, and former India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar attended the swearing-in. Ambani was accompanied by his son Anant and daughter-in-law Radhika. His younger brother Anil Ambani was also present. Billionaire Kumarmangalam Birla attended the event along with his daughter Ananya, as did Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi. Hindi film industry actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, and Sanjay Dutt were also among the attendees.