File photo of Congress’ Nana Patole (L), NCP’s (SP) Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Uddhav Thackeray. | ANI
Devendra Fadnavis is set to take oath to become Maharashtra chief minister today evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and bigwigs of Bharatiya Janata Party, NCP and Shiv Sena are going to attend the ceremony. However, leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are going to give the ceremony a miss. Prominent leaders in the opposition camp, including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and Nana Patole have been invited but the opposition camp is most likely to stay away from the ceremony.
The oath-taking ceremony is going to take place at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. It is expected that besides Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar will take oaths for Deputy CM posts.
It is being reported that Fadnavis himself called Sharad Pawar and invited him to his oath-taking ceremony. However, Pawar is unlikely to be able to attend the ceremony as he is in New Delhi attending Parliament session.
As per protocol, former chief ministers are invited for the ceremony. In accordance with it, invitation has been extended to Uddhav Thackeray as well. But even he will steer clear of the ceremony. Thackeray had not publicly stated any reason at the time of publishing of this story.
MVA suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Mahayuti in recently concluded Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections 2024. Out 288, Mahayuti bagged 235 seats and secured a landslide victory. BJP emerged as the largest party with 132 seats.
Raj Thackeray To Skip Too
Media reports have said that Fadnavis personally extended invitation to Raj Thackeray on phone. However the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) isn’t going to attend the oath-taking ceremony due to a personal reason.
