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Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as first BJP CM of Maharashtra

Devendra Gangadhar Fadnavis (44) on Friday created history taking oath as the first BJP chief minister…

Devendra Gangadhar Fadnavis (44) on Friday created history taking oath as the first BJP chief minister of Maharashtra at a grand function held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

A team of nine ministers were administered the oath of office at the function that saw massive attendance by “aam admi” across Maharashtra. The cricket stadium resounded with a thunderous applause as Fadnavis walked to the podium to take oath as chief minister in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Fadnavis’ wife Amruta took the centrestage proudly watching her husband taking the oath of highest office in Maharashtra. At the “Shatpratishat BJP” (100 percent BJP) show, it was “lotus” all the way from posters to slogans.

The seven cabinet ministers who constitute the team include Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Prakash Mehta, Chadrakant Patil, Pankaja Munde and Vishnu Sawara. The two ministers of state who are in the team include Dileep Kamble and Vidhya Thakur. The composition of the first cabinet ensured there was representation across Vidarbha, North Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra, Marathawada and Mumbai (Konkan).

Similarly, care was taken to balance the caste and community factor with Vishnu Sawara representing the scheduled tribe community and Dileep Kamble the scheduled caste. The nine member team also includes Prakash Mehta who hails from Gujarati and Vidya Thakur who belongs to the North Indian community.

The presence of two women ministers in the first team has come as a pleasant diversion from the past Congress-NCP regime where women were dismissed as “symbolic” and did not get adequate representation in the cabinet.

While Fadnavis and Mungantiwar represent the cotton belt of Vidarbha which won 44 seats out of 62 in election , Chandrakant Patil and Dilip Kamble represent western Maharashtra where the party made deep inroads challenging the Congress-NCP and Khadse north Maharashtra and Pankaja Munde from Marathwada.

Mumbai which made a record victory in the assembly elections with 15 assembly seats out of 36 seats got a adequate representation with Tawde, Thakur and Mehta.

Overall, the first cabinet ensured a mix of old and new, regional balance and caste composition.

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First published on: 01-11-2014 at 12:23 IST
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