New Maharashtra govt to be sworn in on Dec 5, Fadnavis frontrunner for CM post

MUMBAI: The new Mahayuti government in Maharashtra will be sworn in at Azad Maidan here on the evening of December 5 in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence , the state BJP announced on Saturday.

While there was no announcement yet on who would be the chief minister, BJP sources said Devendra Fadnavis, who has been chief minister twice and was deputy CM in the last Eknath Shinde-led government, was the frontrunner for the top post.

Shinde, who is holding the charge as caretaker chief minister and who headed to his native village Dare in Satara district a day before amid speculation that he was not happy with the way the new government was shaping up, has taken ill, an aide said.

He was running temperature of 105, the aide said.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 5 pm at the Azad Maidan ground in south Mumbai, said state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule in a post on X. PM Modi will attend the ceremony, he added.

Shiv Sena leader Shambhuraj Desai, who hails from Satara district, told reporters that Shinde and other party leaders returned from Delhi early Friday morning after meeting the top BJP leaders, and Shinde has had cough and cold since then. "Exertion affected him, so we advised him to take rest," said Desai.

Sanjay Shirsat, a Shiv Sena leader close to Shinde, said his party must get the home portfolio. Speaking to PTI, Shirsat also claimed that attempts were made to sideline Shinde.

Meanwhile, a BJP leader said a meeting will be held on December 2 to elect the BJP legislature party leader.

Fadnavis was likely to get the CM post this time, he added.

Shinde, who heads the Shiv Sena and who was chief minister since June 2022, attended a meeting of the ruling alliance leaders with senior BJP leader Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday night. Before that, he had made it clear that any decision on the chief minister's post by the top BJP leadership would be acceptable to him.

Shinde is under pressure from a group of Shiv Sena leaders who think he should not become a deputy CM, having been the chief minister for more than two years. Another group of party leaders insists that he must be part of the new government.

The Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power with a landslide victory in the assembly elections, the results of which were announced on November 23.

While the simple majority figure in the 288-member House is 145, the BJP alone bagged 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.

But the government formation was delayed as the alliance failed to evolve consensus on who would be the chief minister.

Shinde, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar met BJP president J P Nadda and Union minister Shah late Thursday night to discuss the power-sharing arrangement.

Though Shinde appeared to have ceded claim to the top post, indications that there were still some points of disagreements in the alliance emerged when a meeting of the allies here on Friday was put off, and he instead left for his village Dare.

The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has already stated that Fadnavis was acceptable to it as chief minister.

Elsewhere, Sanjay Raut of the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) told reporters that the "unnatural verdict" delayed the selection of the chief minister, and the differences in the ruling alliance forced Shinde to go to his village.

The Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a rout in the November 20 elections, with the Congress winning 16 seats, Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) 10 seats and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) picking up 20 seats.

MVA leaders including Sharad Pawar expressed solidarity with social activist Baba Adhav who launched a protest in Pune three days ago against the alleged misuse of Electronic Voting Machines in the recent elections.

Power and money were misused to control the election machinery, alleged the senior Pawar.