Mumbai: BJP leader Debendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the third time on Thursday at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. Along with Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar were also administered the oath by Governor CP Radhakrishnan. All the three took the oath in Marathi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, several BJP Chief Ministers, and leaders from the Mahayuti alliance, including the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, attended the event. Prominent celebrities, including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh, former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were also present at the ceremony.
This will be Devendra Fadnavis’s third stint as Chief Minister. He first served as Chief Minister from October 2014 to November 2019, becoming the youngest person to hold the post in the state at the age of 44. His second term was brief, lasting only five days—from November 23 to 28, 2019—after the undivided Shiv Sena broke its alliance with the BJP.
Fadnavis took his mother’s blessings ahead of his swearing-in ceremony at Azad Maidan. “Charm of Maya! The beginning of a new season with the blessings of mother,” he said in a post on X. The BJP achieved remarkable success in the November 20 Maharashtra elections, securing 132 out of the 288 assembly seats, marking its best performance in the state so far. Together with its allies — the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition has a commanding majority of 230 seats.
