Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s new CM, back in driver’s seat: ‘Mee Punha Yein’ | Mumbai News

Devendra Fadnavis is set to be sworn in as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister again after the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a resounding victory with 230 seats.

MUMBAI: Right through the 2019 assembly election campaign, Devendra Fadnavis had kept saying ‘Mee Punha Yein’ (I’ll be back). But with MVA forming govt, the remark was thrown at him repeatedly as a taunt by his rivals. They also rubbed it in when he became Eknath Shinde‘s deputy 2.5 years ago.
He has, however, finally proved his words right: he’s back at the helm with a resounding mandate of 132 seats for BJP and 230 for Mahayuti and is poised to take oath as chief minister of Maharashtra once again at 5pm this evening at Azad Maidan.

It was caretaker CM Shinde who proposed his name on Wednesday, hours after Fadnavis was unanimously chosen BJP’s legislative party leader at Vidhan Bhavan. Shinde said, “Fadnavis had proposed my name as CM, and this time, we are proposing his.”

After the BJP legislators’ meet, Fadnavis met governor CP Radhakrishnan with Shinde and Ajit Pawar and staked claim to form govt. Ajit will be deputy CM for sixth time, a record in India – Wilfred De Souza (Goa) had four terms as deputy CM, while Sushil Kumar Modi (Bihar), Mukul Sangma (Meghalaya) and Sukhbir Badal (Punjab) have been deputy CMs three times each.
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Shinde has agreed to be deputy CM following a closed-door meeting that Fadnavis had with him Wednesday evening.
It’s not clear if only the CM and deputy CMs will be sworn in today or some more cabinet members as well – the full cabinet is likely to take oath once the power-sharing formula, which is still in the works, is finalised.
Fadnavis thanked Shinde after the latter proposed his name. He said that he had, on Tuesday, requested Shinde to join the cabinet, and he believed he would be able to persuade him. Seeking to project unity in Mahayuti, he said, “The CM’s post is just a technical agreement between us.”
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According to reports, Mahayuti has submitted to the governor a list of 237 legislators (out of a total of 288) in support of the govt. “We submitted a letter from political parties supporting us. After the governor was convinced we have enough support, he invited us to form the govt,” Fadnavis said.
Earlier in the day, the BJP state core committee met at Vidhan Bhavan in the presence of central observers – Nirmala Sitharaman, Union finance minister; and Vijay Rupani, former Gujarat CM. Party national general secretary Vinod Tawade was also present. At the meeting, Fadnavis’s name was proposed and approved for the legislative party leader’s post.
It was decided Chandrakant Patil would propose his name at the legislative party meeting and Sudhir Mungantiwar would second the motion. Subsequently, Fadnavis was elected leader of the BJP legislative party at a meeting of the party’s new MLAs.