Mumbai: In an grand event attended not just by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and other Chief Ministers but also by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister on Friday.
Along with Fadnavis, seven other ministers – Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde, Prakash Mehta, Chandrakant Patil and Vishnu Savara – took oath as Cabinet Ministers. Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur took as as Ministers of State in the state Cabinet.
Fadnavis is the 27th CM of Maharashtra and the 18th person to hold the post. He is the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM. He is only the second Brahmin Chief Minister after Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi in the state dominated by Maratha politicians.
From Bollywood stars to major political leaders, even religious leaders provided the flavour at Mumbai iconic Wankhede stadium which was dressed in a sea of saffron to mark the beginning of Fadnavis’ innings as BJP’s first CM in Maharashtra.
However, the real drama played out less than two hours before the ceremony was to begin. As the stands behind the Balasaheb Thackeray press box began to fill up, reports started pouring in that BJP president Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis had a telephonic conversation with Uddhav Thackery.
The call broke the two-week old stalemate between the two former alliance partners. Even when Fadnavis stood up to take the oath, Uddhav was conspicuous by his absence.
With all eyes on him, Uddhav came to the event and shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Modi. It was later said that he was delayed due to the notorious traffic in the city. Meanwhile, the Sena chief maintained his stand that no decision had yet been taken about the future of his party with the BJP.
Though a section of the Sena has been advocating sitting in the opposition, Uddhav seems to be aware that his decision could impact the very survival of Sena as a party of reckoning.
While the nuts and bolts of the power sharing arrangement between the two former allies are being worked out, another interesting political dynamic is how the new CM handles the nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the several cases of corruption against its leaders which could define his administration. The NCP has extended its support to the BJP in the state to form the government.
However, his first challenge will be to prove his majority, the route to which is yet unclear.
