Mahayuti partners to jointly decide on swearing-in modalities for Dec 5: Alliance leader

The Mahayuti constituents in Maharashtra will sit together and decide whether only chief minister and deputy CMs will take oath on December 5 or ministers will also be sworn in, a senior leader of the alliance said on Sunday.

The oath-taking ceremony of the new Mahayuti government in Maharashtra will take place on December 5 evening at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend it, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Saturday.

While there was no announcement yet on who would be the chief minister, BJP sources said Devendra Fadnavis, who has been chief minister twice and was deputy CM in the last Eknath Shinde-led government, was the frontrunner for the post.

The Mahayuti allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have already declared Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as their legislature party leaders, respectively. However, the BJP, which is the largest Mahayuti constituent, is yet to name its legislature party leader.

NCP chief Ajit Pawar on Saturday said the chief minister will be from the BJP, while there will be deputy CMs from the two allies -- his party and the Shiv Sena. Pawar was a deputy CM in the last government.

Talking to PTI on Sunday, Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said it has been announced that the swearing-in ceremony will take place on December 5.

"But the BJP legislature party leader hasn't been appointed yet. We will sit together and decide whether only chief minister and deputy chief ministers will take oath or ministers will also be sworn-in," the Lok Sabha member from Raigad said.

A senior BJP leader said it was decided on Saturday that its legislature party leader will be chosen at 1 pm on December 2.

"But now it looks like the meeting may be postponed to December 3 or 4," said the leader who did not wish to be named.

When contacted, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said he was in Nashik and had not been informed about the swearing-in ceremony.

"Our leaders Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare haven't given us any information," he said.

Maharashtra's caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who took ill at his native village in Satara district, is recovering and will return to Mumbai on Sunday evening, an associate said earlier in the day.

A team of doctors checked on Shinde as he developed high fever on Saturday.

The Shiv Sena leader headed to his native village Dare in Satara district on Friday amid speculation that he was not happy with the way the new state government was shaping up.

The Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP retained power with a landslide victory in the assembly elections, the results of which were announced on November 23.

While the simple majority figure in the 288-member House is 145, the BJP alone bagged 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.

But the government formation has been delayed as the alliance failed to evolve a consensus on who would be the chief minister.

Though Shinde appeared to have ceded claim to the top post, indications that there were still some points of disagreements emerged when a meeting of the allies here on Friday was put off, and he instead left for his village Dare.

The NCP has already stated that Fadnavis was acceptable to it as chief minister.