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| Fadnavis with wife Amruta at his swearing-in ceremony in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI) |
Mumbai, Oct. 31: Devendra Fadnavis was today sworn in as the first BJP chief minister of Maharashtra in front of an estimated 30,000 people at the Wankhede Stadium, where Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s last-minute entry pointed at a rapprochement between the two former allies.
A huge crowd of supporters from Nagpur and party workers from all over the state cheered Fadnavis, 44, as he took oath, becoming the state’s second youngest chief minister.
As the new chief minister mingled with the crowds after the ceremony, shaking hands and accepting greetings, his attention was drawn to a five-year-old awaiting her turn. Fadnavis rushed to grab the outstretched hands of his daughter Divija. “All the best, Baba,” she said. Divija, who was accompanied by Devendra’s mother Sarita and his wife Amruta, will be the youngest occupant of the chief minister’s official bungalow Varsha.
Until now, Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya had been the youngest occupant. She was nine when her father, now the NCP chief, became chief minister at the age of 38.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP stalwart L.K. Advani and party chief Amit Shah attended the swearing-in along with other top party leaders and BJP chief ministers of other states.
BJP workers floated cut-outs of the lotus, the party’s symbol, on the Arabian Sea off Marine Drive as Fadnavis was sworn in, a nod to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s lines at BJP’s 1980 national convention in Mumbai: “Andhera chhatega, suraj niklega, kamal khilega (Darkness will disappear, the sun will emerge, and the lotus will bloom).”
State core committee members Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde-Palve were sworn in as cabinet ministers. So were Chandrakant Patil, a staunch RSS hand known to be close to Amit Shah, Vishnu Sawra, six-time MLA from Palghar, and Prakash Mehta, six-time MLA from Ghatkopar East. Two ministers of state were also sworn in.
Present at the ceremony were NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, R.R. Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil. The NCP has offered outside support to the BJP government.
The highlight was the late entry of Thackeray, who walked in with wife Rashmi when the oath-taking ceremony was under way and was seated next to the last chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, in a row that included BJP chief ministers Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Raman Singh, Manohar Parrikar and Anandiben Patel.
The Shiv Sena had yesterday said the party would boycott the swearing-in if its MLAs were not sworn in today. However, two hours before the ceremony, Amit Shah and Fadnavis separately telephoned Matoshri and invited Uddhav and his team. “After both Shah and Fadnavis personally invited him, Uddhavji has decided to grace the occasion,” Sena leader Sanjay Raut said.
Asked if the Sena would now join the BJP-led government, Raut said: “The discussions with the BJP will continue.”
In a media conference after the first meeting of his cabinet, Fadnavis said: “Uddhavji’s presence at the ceremony is a positive development and we are happy about it. The talks between the two parties are progressing positively.”
Uddhav and Shah held a 15-minute meeting at Wankhede after the ceremony ended.
Fadnavis said in its first decision, the cabinet resolved to table a Right to Service Bill to make the government accountable for its role as a service provider.
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