[Watch] Devendra Fadnavis Takes Oath As Maharashtra CM For 3rd Time

Mumbai: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra for the fourth time.

The BJP leader thus returned as CM after five years. Fadnavis helmed led the BJP-Shiv Sena government from 2014 to 2019. His second stint as CM, however, lasted just 5 days. After Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena broke ties with the BJP over the CM’s post following the 2019 elections, Fadnavis was sworn in again with Ajit Pawar as his deputy. But Pawar failed to secure sufficient support from NCP MLAs, leading to Uddhav becoming CM.

In a mega event at Azad Maidan, outgoing CM and Shinde (Sena) leader Eknath Shinde as well as NCP’s Ajit Pawar were sworn in as Deputy CMs by Governor C P Radhakrishnan.

The Mahayuti alliance recorded a resounding victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections last month, garnering 230 of the 228 seats, with BJP alone bagging 132.

Though it took around 10 days to reach consensus on the chief minister candidate, it was only apt that the oath-taking ceremony would be a grand affair.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in attendance, as were his heavyweight Union Cabinet colleagues like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and JP Nadda, who were all on stage.

Some of the other chief ministers who were present at Azad Maidan were Yogi Adityanath, Mohan Charan Majhi, Bhajanlal Sharma, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar.

Before making his way to the Azad Maidan, Fadnavis took the blessings of his mother.

“The beginning of a new season with the blessings of mother,” he wrote on X alongside a picture showing his mother applying tilak on his forehead.