Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Thursday in a grand ceremony held at Azad Maidan, Mumbai. Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office to Fadnavis, marking the beginning of his historic new term.
The event was attended by a host of prominent leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Chief Ministers from several states, such as Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), and Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), also witnessed the occasion.
Adding a touch of glamour to the ceremony, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, and Madhuri Dixit were present to celebrate the political milestone.
Fadnavis, born on July 22, 1970, in Nagpur, comes from a middle-class family. He holds degrees in law, business management, and project management, which have contributed to his astute political acumen. His political journey began in 1992 when he was elected as a councillor in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, a position he held for two consecutive terms before advancing to serve as an MLA for five terms.
From 2014 to 2019, Fadnavis served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, becoming the second-youngest to hold the position after Sharad Pawar. During his tenure, he oversaw major projects, including the Samruddhi Expressway, the Police Digitisation Project, and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Scheme, which bolstered the state’s infrastructure and welfare initiatives.
Fadnavis briefly held the Chief Minister’s position during the political turmoil in 2019 when the Shiv Sena broke its alliance with the BJP to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government with the Congress and NCP.
In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a resounding victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, while its allies, the Shiv Sena and NCP, secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively.
The MVA alliance suffered a significant defeat, with Congress managing only 16 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) securing 20, and the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP winning just 10 seats.
(Inputs from ANI)
