After a prolonged suspense, the day has arrived which will decide the fate of Maharashtra’s future. 132 party legislators and five Independents supporting BJP on Wednesday unanimously elected Devendra Fadnavis as the legislature party leader.

With this, Fadnavis has been named as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Wednesday.

Moreover, reports also claim Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) boss Ajit Pawar named as Deputy CMs.

Devendra Fadnavis to be sworn in as Maharashtra CM on Thursday; his name finalised in BJP core committee meeting that was held on Wednesday morning.

Fadnavis’ name was proposed by former Ministers Chandrakant Patil and Sudhir Mungantiwar and it was seconded by a host of legislators, including the Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar.

The announcement of Fadnavis’ election was made by the party observer and former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who was accompanied by the co-observer and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Notably, Fadnavis met Eknath Shinde in Mumbai Tuesday evening.

As reports suggest, central observer Rupani arrived in Mumbai Tuesday evening for the meeting. The late-night meeting has yielded the legislature party leader’s name after talks with the party’s newly-elected MLAs.

Sitharaman and former Rupani were appointed as the central observers for the BJP legislature party meeting.

Chandrakant Patil and Sudhir Mungantiwar proposed Devendra Fadnavis’ name amid slogan shouting from the legislators. Fadnavis’ name was seconded by legislators, including Pankaja Munde, Praveen Darekar, Ravindra Chavan and Meghana Bordikar.

After that Rupani asked the legislators whether anyone wanted to recommend another name. Legislators said no and thereafter Rupani announced that Fadnavis has been unanimously elected as the legislature party group leader. Fadnavis was felicitated by the core committee leaders and senior leaders, including party Secretary Shiv Prakash and General Secretary Vinod Tawde.

Earlier, the state core committee met and unanimously zeroed in on Fadnavis’ name as the legislature party group leader.

Fadnavis in his speech thanked the legislators for his unanimous election as the legislature party group leader. “The election mandate has proved that 'Ek Hai to Safe Hai and Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai'. I salute the people of Maharashtra for giving such a mega mandate. I also thank the caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Dy CM Ajit Pawar and leaders from allies,” he added.

Maha braces for new CM

BJP, which has emerged as the big brother by winning 132 seats in the MahaYuti, has planned the swearing-in ceremony of the Maharashtra Cabinet slated for December 5 to be a grand event. 

BJP has taken a lead in its organisation even before the MahaYuti has yet to formally stake a claim for the government.

The swearing-in function will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, about nine to ten union ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, and Shivraj Chauhan among others along with 19 chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states and NDA partners. The BJP national president JP Nadda will also attend the ceremony.

The party expects 40,000 to 50,000 people to attend the ceremony being held at the Azad Maidan near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in South Mumbai.

BJP legislator Prasad Lad, who is the close confidant of Devendra Fadnavis, said that nearly 10,000 beloved sisters (Ladki Bahin) and 2,000 farmers will attend the function.

“The members of cooperative societies have helped BJP and MahaYuti to score a big win and so about 5,000 chairpersons and secretaries of such societies will also attend the ceremony,” he said.

He added a special arrangement is being made for about 2,000 VVIPs and VIPs.

“The swearing-in ceremony will be telecast live and it can be seen on LED screens at bus stops, theatres and key locations across Maharashtra,” he said.

He further added that the invitations are being sent to veteran politicians including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and leading industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani.

Nearly 100 saints, influencers, professionals including doctors and chartered accountants and Bollywood stars and Marathi film actors are also being invited for the swearing-in function.

A senior BJP leader said that nearly 10,000 BJP workers will wear T-shirts with a written message of 'Ek Hai To Safe Hai' while Marathi and Hindi singers will also perform at the venue.

The police have beefed up security near the venue and also across Mumbai so that the swearing-in function with such a huge mobilisation of people takes place smoothly.

MahaYuti leaders including state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and party legislator Praveen Darekar, Shiv Sena legislator Sanjay Shirsat and NCP ministers Hasan Mushrif and Dhananjay Munde on Tuesday visited Azad Maidan and took stock of preparations for the swearing-in ceremony.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)

Also read:

MahaYuti likely to name Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra CM on Dec 4

Devendra Fadnavis’ name finalised for Maha CM?