After being elected the chief minister nominee of the Maha Vikas Aghadi on Tuesday evening, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying he had never dreamed of leading the state.
"I had never dreamed of leading the state. I would like to thank Sonia Gandhi and others. We are giving a new direction to country by keeping faith on each other," Uddhav said at a joint meeting of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress at Hotel Trident in Mumbai.
At the meeting, Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil proposed Uddhav's name as "the (next) chief minister". State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat seconded the proposal.
Uddhav will be the first from the Thackeray family to assume a government post. His father late Bal Thackeray wielded the 'remote control' over the first Sena-BJP combine government during 1995-99 but never assumed a position in the government.
According to reports, Uddhav will take oath as the chief minister on December 1. The three-party alliance claims to have the support of 162 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.
Balasaheb Thorat (Congress) and Jayant Patil (NCP) are likely to be sworn in as deputy chief ministers.
Earlier, the four-day-old BJP government collapsed after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar resigned, hours after the Supreme Court ordered a floor test in the Assembly on Wednesday.
