Maharashtra, Nov 28, TEN Network | Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will take oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday evening. The ceremony will take place at Shivaji Park in Mumbai where Uddhav’s father Bal Thackeray founded the Sena in 1966.
Udhhav Thackeray will be the first member of the Thackeray family to occupy the chief minister’s post.
Here are top 10 developments:
1) Uddhav Thackeray will be administered the oath of office by Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at 6.40pm. One or two legislators from Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are also likely to take oath on Thursday evening.
2) The last Sena man to occupy the chief minister’s chair was Narayan Rane in 1999, after Manohar Joshi, who in 1995 became the first CM from the party.
3) After a six-hour meeting on Wednesday evening, Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, the newly formed three-party alliance, said the deputy chief minister will be from Sharad Pawar’s NCP while a Congress legislator will become the speaker.
4) NCP leader Praful Patel has said all other ministerial portfolios will be announced after the new government proves its majority before the December 3 deadline set by the governor.
5) Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening and invited him for the swearing-in. Thackeray had earlier also sent an invitation letter to PM Modi.
6) The Sena has also extended invitations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and MP Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh. The former PM’s office said he won’t be able to attend the event.
7) Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin has also been invited.
8) Elaborate security arrangements have been made around Shivaji Park ahead of the oath ceremony. News agency ANI reported that around 2000 police personnel will be deployed in the area.
9) On Wednesday, a special session of the Maharashtra assembly was held where all 285 newly elected members were sworn-in by pro tem or temporary speaker Kalidas Kolambkar.
10) Ajit Pawar, who had rebelled against NCP to form a government with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Devendra Fadnavis, returned back to the party fold. “I never left the party. I was with the NCP, I am with the NCP and will remain with the NCP,” he said. (TIE)