Eknath Shinde takes oath as Maharashtra CM; Fadnavis sworn in as his deputy

Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde took oath as the new chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday evening bringing curtain down on the over a week long political drama in the state. In a major twist in the climax, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was widely reported to be the next CM, took oath as the deputy chief minister.

Fadnavis and Shinde met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in the afternoon and staked claim to form the government, a day after Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray resigned as the chief minister soon after the Supreme Court refused to give a stay to the floor test in the Assembly. The collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was imminent since Shinde rebelled against the Sena leadership and left Mumbai with a sizable number of legislators.

Addressing a press meet at Raj Bhawan after meeting the Governor, Fadnavis launched a scathing attack on the Thackeray camp and said the Shiv Sena insulted the mandate of the people in 2019 and formed alliance with those who are against Hindutva and Veer Savarkar.

Fadnavis said in 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena had an alliance and it got required numbers in the Assembly elections. “We hoped to form the government, but Shiv Sena chose to get into an alliance with those against whom Balasaheb protested throughout his life,” he said.

Fadnavis said he would stay out of the new government, but later in the evening he “accepted” the BJP central leadership's “request” to take over the deputy CM post just minutes before the swearing-in.

“Devendra Fadnavis has decided to join the Maharashtra government on the request of BJP chief J.P. Nadda,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted, adding that Fadnavis's decision shows his sense of service towards the people of Maharashtra.

Nadda said it has been proved that BJP never had desire for chief minister's post and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray left their alliance "for greed" of this post. "Devendra Fadnavis has shown big heart and decided to join the new Maharashtra cabinet," he said.

Shinde, while addressing the press meet with Fadnavis, thanked the former CM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for offering him the CM post. He claimed to have the support of 50 MLAs and said that their decision to join hands with the BJP to form the government is committed to Balasaheb's Hindutva and for the development work in the constituencies of our MLAs.