Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra CM, NCP's Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM

Devendra Fadnavis said, "People had given us a clear mandate, but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties, as a result, President's Rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable government not a 'khichdi' government."

Image Courtesy: IANS

New Delhi: In a surprise move, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term on Saturday morning while Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as his deputy.

The oath ceremony was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhawan. 

Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister again,NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy CM, oath was administered by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhawan pic.twitter.com/KrejSTXTBd — ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2019

"People had given us a clear mandate, but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties, as a result, President's Rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable government not a 'khichdi' government," Fadnavis said after taking oath as Maharashtra CM again. 

The development comes at a time when the talks between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena over government formation in Maharashtra seemingly reached the final stage on Friday. Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of the alliance government. However, things changed overnight after Ajit Pawar decided to support the BJP which emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra Assembly election.

BJP could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on having a government under 50:50 formula and rotating the Chief Minister's post. Shiv Sena later parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government.

"From result day to this day, no party was able to form government, Maharashtra was facing many problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stable government," Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's nephew, said after taking oath as the deputy CM. 

Soon after Fadnavis and Pawar took oath as Maharashtra CM and Deputy CM, respectively, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the two leaders and said he is "confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra."  

Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 23, 2019

After none of the major parties failed to stake claim to form the government, President's Rule was imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.