Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) candidate Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis was on 31 October 2014 sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The oath ceremony was held at a gala public function at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is the first BJP candidate to become CM of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Fadnavis. The oath ceremony in Wankhede Stadium was witnessed by over 30000 people.

Along with CM, the Cabinet ministers were also sworn. These were Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde, Prakash Mehta, Vishnu Sawra, and Chandrakant Patil.

Besides, Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur were sworn in as ministers of state.

Fadnavis was appointed as CM of the State after he was elected leader by the legislative assembly members of the BJP.

Background
In the elections held in October 2014, BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly with 122 seats, but one of its MLAs Govind Rathod died.

The Shiv Sena finished second with 63 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which emerged victorious in 41 seats, has offered the BJP external support to form the government in the state.

About Devendra Fadnavis

• He is 18th person to hold the post of Maharashtra CM.
• Fadnavis is a fourth-term MLA from Nagpur.
• He will also be the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM and at the age of 44, the second youngest person to hold the top post in Maharashtra.
• He was the second youngest mayor elected in India, when he served as the Mayor of Nagpur at the age of 27, in 1997.
• He is also the only person to be re-elected as the Mayor in Council of the State of Maharashtra.
• He has been elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra State, representing Nagpur, since, 1999