In a fine comeback Devendra Fadnavis evening took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister, while leaders of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, were sworn in as deputy chief ministers at a grand ceremony in south Mumbai’s sprawling Azad Maidan.
As reported by PTI Immediately after the ceremony, the triumvirate drove together to Mantralaya, the state secretariat, also in south Mumbai, where Fadnavis, 54, chaired the maiden cabinet meeting of the new regime and also addressed a press conference.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several Union ministers and chief ministers of various states besides thousands of supporters of the Mahayuti alliance were present at the swearing in ceremony, held almost a fortnight after results of the state assembly elections were declared on November 23.
The ministry will be expanded next week, ahead of the winter session of state legislature in Nagpur, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.
Those present at the ceremony included Union ministers Amit Shah, J P Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Chief ministers of various National Democratic Alliance-ruled states were also present, including Yogi Adityanath, Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mohan Yadav and Pramod Sawant.
Also present were actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and industrialist Mukesh Ambani.
