Devendra Fadnavis has taken oath as the 27th Chief Minister of Maharashtra at a grand function attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and various dignitaries at Wankhade Stadium on Friday. He also becomes the first CM from BJP in the state.
Eknath Khadse, the Leader of Opposition in the previous assembly, has taken oath as a minister in the State Cabinet in Mumbai along with other ministers, including Chandrakant Bachchu Patil, Prakash Manubhai Mehta, Vinod Tawde, Sudhir Sachchidanand Mungantiwar, Vidya Jayaprakash Thakur and Pankaja Munde.
In a major U-turn, in a less than 24 hours, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and his party MLAs also attended the event. The party had yesterday said that it would boycott the ceremony.
Among state chief ministers, Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh were also present at the event.
The 10-member Devendra Fadnavis ministry is a blend of youth and experience. The seniormost among them is Eknath Khadse (born in 1952), Leader of Opposition in the outgoing 12th State Assembly. A prominent leader from Jalgaon district in North Maharashtra, he was Finance Minister during the Shiv Sena-BJP regime in1995-99.
Sudhir Mungantiwar (born 1962) is a former president of Maharashtra BJP and a close associate of Union minister Nitin Gadkari. He was a minister for some time during the Shiv Sena-BJP regime in 1995-99. He hails from Chandrapur district in Vidarbha.
Vinod Tawde (born 1963), who was effective as leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, hails from Sindhdurg district in coastal Konkan region and is an electronicsengineering graduate.
Till two days ago, Chandrakant Patil, an MLC from Pune graduates seat, was tipped to succeed Fadnavis as the next state BJP chief. Hailing from Kolhapur district in westernMaharashtra, he has deep roots in RSS and often acts as a bridge between the Sangh Parivar and the state party organisation.
Pankaja Munde (born 1979) won her second term as MLA from Parli in Marathwada region. She was made a member of the state BJP core committee after the death of her father Gopinath Munde in a road accident in Delhi in June.
Vishnu Savara won from Vikramgadh constituency in Palghar district. He was a minister during the Sena-BJP government in the 90s.
Prakash Mehta represents Ghatkopar East constituency in Mumbai. He is a former Mumbai BJP president. He was a minister during the Sena-BJP government in the 90s.
Among the ministers of state who took oath today was also Dilip Kamble, who won the October 15 poll from Pune Cantonment defeating sitting MLA Ramesh Bagve, a former minister, by over 14,000 votes.
Vidya Thakur is former deputy mayor of Mumbai. She defeated Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai from Goregaon Assembly constituency in the recently held assembly polls.
(With inputs from PTI)
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