Ending the political uncertainty in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde took the oath as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra today evening. Along with Shinde, BJP leader and former state CM Devendra Fadnavis alson took oath as a cabinet minister, who will be the deputy CM of the state.
There were administered the oath by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai.
No other ministers were included in the ministry. As things moved fast after former CM Uddhav Thackeray resigned yesterday, the new ruling coalition didn’t have time to discuss various issues of the coalition, including the compision of the ministry. Earlier Fadnavis had announced that the ministry will be expanded later after the constituent partners select their MLAs to be part of the ministry.
This is a day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Maharashtra CM following the Supreme Court’s decision to allow a floor test against his government. Thackeray headed a coalition government with the help of Congress and NCP. While everyone was speculating that Devendra Fadnavis will be the CM and Eknath Shinde will be the Deputy CM which seems logical as the BJP has highest number of MLAs in the house, today afternoon BJP announced a big surprise when Fadnavis had said that Shinde will be the CM.
Amid the massive political turmoil, the announcement by Fadnavis came as a surprise as the citizens of Maharashtra speculated Fadnavis to succeed Uddhav Thackeray. Extending support to Eknath Shinde and his rebel group, Devendra Fadnavis said that whatever Shinde did cannot be called as an act of ‘rebel’. “Shiv Sena MLAs were demanding that the alliance with Congress and NCP should be ended but Uddhav Thackeray ignored these MLAs and gave priority to MVA alliance partners, that’s why these MLAs intensified their voices”, he was quoted.
Taking a potshot at Shiv Sena for forming an alliance with Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Fadnavis further said that the MVA alliance had insulted the mandate of the people. Earlier today, Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and staked a claim to form the government.
While Fadnavis had said that he will not join the government, the BJP added another twist to the development by asking him to reconsider the decision. Party president JP Nadda said that the party has decided that Fadnavis should join the government as the Deputy CM. After Nadda made a personal request regarding the same, Devendra Fadnavis accepted the request and agreed to join the govt. According, he also took oath along with Eknath Shinde.
Meanhwhile, Eknath Shinde reiterated that whatever decision has been taken is committed to Balasaheb’s Hindutva and for the development work in the constituencies of the MLAs. “We have 50 MLAs with us”, he stated in the press conference. Shiv Sena rebel leader Deepak Kesarkar who also addressed the press conference on June 30, confirmed that the rebel leaders were not revolting against Uddhav Thackeray but were only against the alliance with Congress and NCP.
“Uddhav Thackeray was and is the leader of Shiv Sena. He had said that ‘if any of the MLAs want to become chief minister, then he should come ahead and meet me and say so, then I will resign.’ It must be noted that none of the MLAs, whom the Shiv Sena spokesperson called traitors, has asked Uddhav Thackeray to resign. All we were asking him was to break the alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party and join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party”, he said.
CM Shinde and around 42 MLA supporting him had rebelled against the MVA led government and the Shiv Sena party led by Uddhav Thackeray. He had demanded the re-alliance of the BJP and Shiv Sena to which former CM Uddhav Thackeray had refused.
The rebel camp led by CM Eknath Shinde first went to Surat and from there it traveled to a hotel in Assam’s Guwahati. The rebel Shiv Sena leaders had claimed that Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray had forgotten the principles of the party supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and that it had also forgotten its agenda of Hindutva.
