CM post is `technical arrangement'; will work unitedly with allies: Fadnavis

Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the post of Chief Minister is a "technical arrangement" and he would run the new Mahayuti coalition government in Maharashtra by taking allies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar along.

Fadnavis was speaking to reporters after meeting Governor C P Radhakrishnan who invited him to form the next government. He was accompanied by Shinde and Pawar.

"Chief minister's post is a technical arrangement. All three of us will work together unitedly," Fadnavis said.

"I and two deputy chief ministers will take oath (during the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday evening). It is yet to be decided how many ministers will take oath," he informed.

He met Shinde on Tuesday evening and invited him to join the government, Fadnavis added.

But Shinde, currently the caretaker CM, evaded reply when asked whether he will join the government.

''Wait till evening," said the Shiv Sena president who was chief minister of the Mahayuti government from July 2022 onwards.

Ajit Pawar interjected, saying he was going to take oath (as deputy CM), drawing laughter.

"He has experience. He can take oath in the morning as well as in the evening," Shinde replied in the same vein, apprently referring to Pawar's early morning oath-taking as Fadnavis's deputy when the BJP and an NCP faction led by him formed a short-lived government in 2019.

Fadnavis informed that besides the Sena and NCP, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Jansurajya Shakti Party, Yuva Swabhiman Paksh's Ravi Rana and two other independent MLAs have given him letters of support.

The swearing-in will take place at Azad Maidan ground in south Mumbai at 5.30 pm on Thursday, to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Union ministers besides chief ministers of NDA-ruled states.

Ajit Pawar said the new government will function unitedly, while Shinde said he was satisfied with his two and half years' tenure during which welfare measures and development agenda were pursued in a balanced way.

''We will work as a team. Our responsibility has grown because of the huge mandate," said Shinde.

The Mahayuti coalition won the last month's assembly elections by a landslide, bagging 230 of 288 seats.