PM Modi, Union ministers, industry, Bollywood icons attend Maharashtra CM's swearing-in

Mumbai, Dec 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister here.

BJP legislature party leader Fadnavis (54) took oath as the chief minister for a third time at a mega swearing-in ceremony held in the evening at the sprawling Azad Maidan in south Mumbai. Shiv Sena's chief leader Eknath Shinde (60) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar (65) were sworn-in as deputy chief ministers at the high-profile event, which was a show of power of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Mahayuti, a state-level alliance.

Prominent leaders from the opposition like the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Congress head Nana Patole, who were invited for the ceremony, skipped the event. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, too, did not attend the gala gathering.

Chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states, including Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), Nayab Singh Saini (Haryana), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Pramod Sawant (Goa), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh), Bhajanlal Sharma (Rajasthan), Mohan Charan Majhi (Odisha), Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh), N Biren Singh (Manipur) and Manik Saha (Tripura) attended the ceremony.

Chief ministers of NDA-ruled states Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya), Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland), Prem Singh Tamang (Sikkim) and N Rangaswamy (Puducherry) were also present. Deputy chief ministers of NDA-ruled states like Pawan Kalyan (Andhra Pradesh) attended the event.

BJP president J P Nadda, Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bhupendra Yadav, Dharemendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal and S Jaishankar were also present at the event.

Leaders of NDA parties --- Union ministers Chirag Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi (Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular), Ramdas Athawale (RPI-A) and Prataprao Jadhav (Shiv Sena) also graced the occasion.

Industrialists Mukesh Ambani, Noel Tata, Kumarmangalam Birla and Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Sanjay Dutt and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar were among the attendees.

Diplomats from several countries were also present on the occasion.

The formation of the new government led by Fadnavis comes after two weeks of intense negotiations among the Mahayuti allies - BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP - following the November 20 assembly polls and results on November 23.

The Mahayuti coalition has won 230 seats in the 288-member House.