The oath-taking ceremony of the new Maharashtra cabinet has been announced by the BJP, but there's no word yet on who will occupy the Chief Minister's post. The ceremony will take place at 5 pm on December 5 at Mumbai's iconic Azad Maidan.
The announcement was made by Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
With 132 seats in the 288-member house, the BJP emerged the single largest party in the state when the results were announced on November 23. Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - the other members of the Mahayuti alliance - won 57 and 41 seats, respectively. The Mahayuti seat count stands at 230. The majority mark is 145.
The Congress, the BJP's national rival, won just 16 seats, adding Maharashtra to its anthology of electoral losses in the recent times. Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction won 20 seats and Sharad Pawar's party, the other NCP faction, won 10 seats. The two parties, along with the Congress, form the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The opposition combine's seat total stood at a paltry 46 seats.
Hectic discussions have been on, both in Delhi and Mumbai, but there's still no clarity who will be the face of the new coalition government.
Earlier this week, Eknath Shinde, the outgoing Chief Minister, said he would not be an "obstacle" and go by the decision of the BJP Central leadership regarding the top post. This effectively clears the way for Devendra Fadnavis, who has been Chief Minister twice and was deputy Chief Minister in the last Eknath Shinde-led government, the front-runner in the race.
