Mumbai: After days of speculation, Devendra Fadnavis’s name was finally confirmed for the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister at a BJP meeting on Wednesday (December 4). Fadnavis’s name was placed before the newly elected legislators and their approval finalised his selection for the post. Several BJP leaders, including Nirmala Sitharaman, Vijay Rupani, Chandrashekhar Bawankule took addressed a press conference along with Fadnavis and announced the decision.
🕐 दु. १.०५ वा. | ४-१२-२०२४📍मुंबई.
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— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) December 4, 2024
This will be Fadnavis’s third term, having previously served as CM for five years from 2014 to 2019, and for just 80 hours afterward. Fadnavis, an elected MLA from Nagpur South West constituency, also served as the deputy chief minister in the previous government.
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Shinde’s resistance delayed announcement of new CM’s name
Although Fadnavis was reportedly the BJP’s choice for the position all along, his appointment could not be finalised due to resistance from the outgoing Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde. For the past two and a half years, Shinde, leader of the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), has served as the state’s chief minister.
This arrangement was part of the Mahayuti government, a gesture made in recognition of Shinde’s break from the undivided Shiv Sena, which was led by Uddhav Thackeray.
In the recently concluded assembly elections, the BJP won 132 seats, while Shinde’s Sena secured 57 seats. Their third ally in the Mahayuti, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won 41 seats. Shinde, a Maratha leader, was reportedly unwilling to work under Fadnavis, a Brahmin from Nagpur.
Shinde’s open disapproval of the BJP’s candidate put the party in a difficult position, forcing it to consider a non-Brahmin, preferably a Maratha leader, for the CM role. Several names have been circulating over the past 10 days since the election results were announced on November 23.
However, Shinde addressed multiple press conferences over the past week, claiming that the discontent was fabricated by the media and that he had always agreed to support the decision made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shinde, who has reportedly been unwell in recent days, had declined to participate in a pre-scheduled meeting and returned to his hometown in Satara. Among the demands Shinde reportedly made to the BJP were key portfolios in the new government, though he has denied these media reports.
Fadnavis, a former mayor of Nagpur, has been elected as an MLA for five consecutive terms.
Even before Fadnavis’s appointment was finalised, the BJP decided to hold a swearing-in ceremony at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan on December 5. This announcement by the party was seen as a way to pressure Shinde into accepting the BJP’s decision.
