In a dramatic development on Saturday morning, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the new chief minister of Maharashtra for a second term. Nationalist Conference Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar will be the deputy CM. The state has been under President’s rule for two weeks.
The oath took place at 8 am today, supervised by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. This took place following revocation of the President’s rule at 5.47 am.
Shiv Sena – ally of the BJP in the earlier government – the Congress and the NCP had reached the final stages of forming the government with all agreeing that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would be the CM.
In the 288-member Assembly, the BJP had won 105 seats, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. This made no single party eligible to form the government unless they went into an alliance. The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP for three decades, wanted a “50:50” formula, but the BJP did not agree with it. Eventually, the Sena-Congress-NCP had agreed to come together to form the government.
But in a dramatic turn of events, the BJP and the NCP came together. Interestingly, NCP leader Sharad Pawar had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the farm crisis in Maharashtra, leading to speculations of some political alliance in the making that might impact the politics in Maharashtra. And that is exactly how it turned out to be.
After taking oath, Fadnavis said that Maharashtra required a stable government, “not a khidchi shaasan” (rule of a confused mixture). He said that they were invited by the Governor to form the government and thanked the NCP for supporting them. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said, “Since the time the results were announced, no party was able to form a government. However, there were many issues including that of the farmers. So we decided to form a stable government.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to congratulated Fadnavis and Pawar.
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