Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath on December 5 as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the third time in a grand ceremony in Mumbai's Azad Maidan. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other dignitaries.
Along with Fadnavis, Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and NCP leader Ajit Pawar were also sworn in as deputy chief ministers of Maharashtra. The new government formation comes after two weeks of intense negotiations between parties within the Mahayuti alliance, which emphatically won the Maharashtra assembly elections. Together with allies Shiv Sena and NCP, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition has a commanding majority of 230 seats. The BJP alone won 132.
The Mahayuti leaders were joined on stage by Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and JP Nadda, and other top BJP leaders. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by over 42,000 attendees, including high-profile guests like Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Sachin Tendulkar, and Kumar Mangalam Birla. In addition to PM Modi, several Union ministers, chief ministers, and deputy CMs from various states were present at Mumbai's Azad Maidan.
Special arrangements were made to accommodate 40,000 BJP supporters, while a separate seating area was set aside for 2,000 VVIPs, including religious leaders. Over 4,000 police personnel were deployed for security.
