Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray Swearing-in Updates: After first Cabinet meet, chief minister announces govt's decision to sanction Rs 20 crore for Raigad Fort's reconstruction

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray Swearing-in LATEST Updates: The Shiv Sena chief was sworn in as the 18th chief minister of the state at Shivaji Park in Dadar today. Six ministers - Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin raut were sworn in as Cabinet ministers. A Cabinet meeting will be held at 8 pm today at Sahyadri Guest House. NCP leader Ajit Pawar reconfirmed that he would not take oath as a Maharashtra minister on Thursday. “I will not take oath today. Only Chhagan Bhujbal and Jayant Patil will take oath as ministers from the NCP,” Ajit Pawar told reporters after a meeting of NCP leaders at party chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai. Meanwhile, ministers appointed in the state cabinet will be announced in the coming days, says NCP leader Praful Patel. “A total six leaders, two from each party, will take oath today along with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray,” he further added. The Bombay High Court has refused to take up urgent hearing on a petition filed by a group of lawyers seeking a stay on the swearing-in of Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday evening. The petitioners sought an urgent hearing of their plea, saying the Shiv Sena and BJP should have stood by their pre-poll alliance and formed the government. However, two different benches of the high court refused to take up the petition for hearing. A division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre asked what was “unconstitutional and void” about the swearing-in ceremony of Thackeray. The petitioner’s lawyer, Mathew Nedumpara, said there has been a breach of trust of the voters, who wanted the Sena and BJP to form government. To this, Chief Justice Nandrajog said, “Is the concept of divorce not new to the law of marriages.” According to CNN-News18, Congress leader Ashok Chavan’s name has been withdrawn from the list of ministers who are expected to take oath later in the day today. This comes after the Enforcement directorate began its probe into the Adarsh Society scam. Chavan, former Maharashtra chief minister was acquittal in the Adarsh housing scam back in 2017. ​Chavan got relief after the Bombay High Court rejected then-governor Vidyasagar Rao’s sanction to prosecute him. The CBI had chargesheeted Chavan and 22 others in connection with the alleged irregularities committed in building the housing society. The agency had accused Chavan of approving additional floor space index for Adarsh Society in return for two flats for his relatives. Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde and NCP’s Jayant Patil are to address a joint press conference at 4 pm, ahead of swearing-in ceremony of Shiv Sena chief and ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ leader Uddhav Thackeray, on Thursday, where the Common Minimum programme of the alliance is likely to be released. Chairperson of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Raj Thackeray will be attending his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thakceray’s oath taking ceremony at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on Thursday, reports CNN-News18. The two had brothers had a fallout after Uddhav was chosen as the Sena Chief to succeed after Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray. Raj split from the family’s political party to form the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in 2005. Earlier in the day, Uddhav had called Raj and invited him to the swearing-in. According to India Today sources, the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance’s Common Minimum Programme is expected to be released at 4 pm on Thursday, just hours before Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in ceremony.

With Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray set to take oath as Maharashtra’s chief minister, the party on Thursday heaped praises on NCP chief Sharad Pawar and termed him ‘margdarshak’ (guide) of the new government in the state. Though the Shiv Sena espouses the Hindutva ideology, it formed the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ alliance with the NCP and Congress when the Uddhav Thackeray-led party fell out with the​ BJP over the issue of sharing the chief minister’s post after the last month’s Assembly elections.

An editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ acknowledged​ Sharad Pawar’s efforts in taking the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance forward.  A strong and experienced ‘margdarshak’ like Sharad Pawar is with us. This government will not function with any deceitful intention against anyone," the Sena said. With the single largest party BJP being unable to form government, the Sena described the change in political dynamics as the “rise of a new sun” in Maharashtra. “The current mood of happiness in the state can be equated with the one the entire country had at the time of Independence on August 15, 1947,” the Marathi daily said. At least 2,000 police personnel will guard the Shivaji Park in Mumbai on Thursday evening as part of the elaborate security arrangements being made for the swearing-in ceremony of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of Maharashtra, a police official said. The iconic venue will turn into a virtual fortress as personnel drawn from various security forces, including Quick Response Teams, Riot Control Police, State Reserve Police Force, Local Armed Police and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad will be deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Dog squads will also be on duty to maintain a vigil at the sprawling ground, located in Dadar area, he said. Police personnel in civil clothes will also be deployed, the official said, adding that drones and CCTV cameras will be used to monitor the crowd. With the stage set for Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in ceremony, senior Sena leader tweeted the famous Bollywood movie dialogue “How is the Josh?” .Raut has been vocal against the former ally, BJP after the two parties sparred over the post of chief minister. He also said that the swearing-in of Uddhav Thackeray as Maharashtra chief minister will affect national politics.“What is going to happen in Maharashtra will affect national politics. Maharashtra is a state which influences the politics of the entire country,” Raut told media persons ahead of Thackeray’s scheduled oath-taking ceremony. NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and​ Jayant Patil and Maharashtra Congress unit chief Balasaheb Thorat are likely to take oath as state ministers on Thursday, sources in the two parties said. The deputy chief minister’s post may go to NCP MLA​ Ajit Pawar, they said. NCP leader Praful Patel on Wednesday said one or two​ MLAs each from his party, the Shiv Sena and the Congress will be sworn in as ministers at the ceremony. “Bhujbal and Patil are expected to be sworn in as ministers from the NCP. Ajit Dada is likely to be the deputy CM. But, he is unlikely to take oath today,” a source in the​ NCP said. “Thorat is also expected to take oath today,” a Congress source said. Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan could be the second leader from the Congress to be sworn in as minister on Thursday. “But, a decision on this will be taken in a few hours,” the source said. Names of Ashok Chavan and another former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan are doing the rounds for the post of Assembly Speaker. According to ANI, NCP sources have claimed that party leader Ajit Pawar is likely to be the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra but will not be taking an oath in today’s ceremony. Ahead of Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in as Maharashtra chief minister on Thursday, the Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena on Wednesday held a six-hour meeting in Mumbai to iron out the modalities of government formation. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, NCP’s Praful Patel said all issues had been sorted out and added that the deputy chief minister would be from the NCP, whereas the Assembly Speaker will be from the Congress. According to ANI, he also said that the number of ministers to be sworn in along with the chief minister will be finalised during the night. However, it is likely that one or two ministers from every party will be sworn in on Thursday, he added. Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday night separately met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and invited them for Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in as Maharashtra chief minister.  But sources told NDTV that both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi along with Singh conveyed their good wishes but said they won’t be able to travel for the swearing-in ceremony. Though Rahul has distanced himself from the Sena, he lashed out at the ruling BJP in parliament over the sudden government formation in Maharashtra and said: “There is no point in my asking the question as democracy has been murdered in Maharashtra.” Aaditya Thackeray had a brief meeting with Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence in the national capital. The Congress tweeted a photo of the two leaders from its official Twitter handle. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is all set to become the first from the Thackeray family to sit on the throne of Maharashtra’s chief minister as he will be taking oath as chief minister at 6:40 pm at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Thursday. Preparations are currently underway at Shivaji Park for the swearing-in ceremony which is slated to be later in the day. From witnessing Shiv Sena’s first rally in 1966 to the cremation of its founder Bal Thackeray, from the swearing-in of its first chief minister Manohar Joshi in 1995 to Udhhav Thackeray now, the Shivaji Park ground in Dadar has been central to the saffron party’s politics for over five decades. Ahead of Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in as Maharashtra chief minister on Thursday, the Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena on Wednesday held a six-hour meeting in Mumbai to iron out the modalities of government formation . Speaking to reporters after the meeting, NCP’s Praful Patel said all issues had been sorted out and added that the deputy chief minister would be from the NCP, whereas the Assembly Speaker will be from the Congress. According to ANI, he also said that the number of ministers to be sworn in along with the chief minister will be finalised during the night. However, it is likely that one or two ministers from every party will be sworn in on Thursday, he added.

Praful Patel, NCP: How many ministers will take oath will be decided tonight. 1 or 2 MLAs from each party will take oath as ministers. Speaker has been decided by all three parties, Speaker will be from Congress and Deputy Speaker from NCP. #Maharashtra https://t.co/kj45FxhIwm

— ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2019

[caption id=“attachment_7709441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajit Pawar at NCP meeting. ANI[/caption] Reports suggest that during the meeting attended by leaders from all three parties including Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Dhananjay Munde and Sharad Pawar, the distribution of cabinet berths was also discussed. Besides the chief minister, the Shiv Sena would get 15 cabinet berths, while the Congress and NCP would each get 13 ministerial berths, reported ANI. However, no official confirmation has been received yet. The meeting follows Pawar’s parleys with Patel, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and others at the his Mumbai residence earlier in the day. There is speculation that Ajit Pawar, who was present at the meeting, may be inducted in the new cabinet. Speaking to reporters after leaving the meeting, Ajit, who took oath as a MLA from the NCP  said that his backing the short-lived BJP government was not a revolt and that he continued to be a member of the party. “I have been telling all that I was in the NCP, I am in NCP and will be in NCP,” he said. Even as Ajit returned to the party fold, Devendra Fadnavis said that he would comment on Ajit’s resignation when the time was right. Late on Wednesday evening, Uddhav Thackeray invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Modi congratulated Uddhav, who is now set to be the chief minister. Meanwhile, BJP chief Amit Shah lashed out at former ally Shiv Sena and reiterated that he never promised Shiv Sena the CM’s post before elections. Hitting out at the Congress and NCP, he alleged that trading the chief ministers post for the support of a party with 56 seats constituted horse-trading. “Isn’t giving support in lieu of the chief minister’s post greed? I tell Sharad ji and Sonia ji that they should try saying that the chief minister will be theirs and then take the support of Shiv Sena. The coalition with about 100 seats is giving the chief minister’s post to the party with 56 seats, this is horse-trading,” he said.

285 MLAs take oath

A special session of the 14th state Assembly was held on Wednesday where oath was administered to 285 newly- elected members by pro tem Speaker Kalidas Kolambkar who was appointed to the post by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Legislature secretary Rajendra Bhagwat said a decision on the date for Speaker’s election will be taken after the Cabinet meeting, following the swearing-in of Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister. In a symbolic gesture, NCP MP Supriya Sule greeted her party MLAs  and relatives Ajit Pawar and Rohit Pawar at the Vidhan Bhavan’s entrance. The newly-elected members could not take oath earlier even one month after the results of the Assembly polls were announced due to dramatic political developments in the state. [caption id=“attachment_7709451” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Supriya Sule with Ajit Pawar. PTI[/caption] The state remained under President’s rule for 13 days between 12 and 23 November after no political party was able to form a government. The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Koshyari to appoint a pro tem speaker and ensure all elected members of the House are sworn in on Wednesday itself by 5 pm. The BJP-led government, which was formed with the support of NCP leader Ajit Pawar on 23 November, collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, after Pawar stepped down as deputy chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister. Fadnavis' resignation came a day after the Sena-led alliance paraded 162 MLAs in an unprecedented show of strength at a luxury hotel on Monday night indicating that the numbers were stacked heavily against the BJP. The alliance, which is expected to have a Common Minimum Programme(CMP), was stitched after hectic parleys involving Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi. Once being the only second chief minister in Maharashtra to complete the full five-year term, Fadnavis now holds the dubious distinction of being the chief minister with the shortest tenure of four days in the last 59 years. The Maha Vikas Aghadi  has rallied behind Uddhav Thackeray, who is not a member of the state legislature. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed the BJP made “barbaric attempts” to retain power in Maharashtra but the state’s people foiled it, marking the beginning of a change in the country’s politics. Exuding confidence, Raut said it will not be surprising if the Shiv Sena forms government at the Centre after having installed its chief minister (Uddhav Thackeray) in Maharashtra. Raut, who addressed the media regularly over the past one month as he took the BJP head-on, aggressively putting forth his party’s side, also said that he would not be holding regular press briefings from Thursday and revert to his work pertaining to the Sena’s mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.The Rajya Sabha member is also the executive editor of Marathi daily ‘Saamana’. Senior Congress leaders including Ahmed Patel met Sharad Pawar at his Silver Oak residence in south Mumbai on Wednesday to discuss issues pertaining to Maharashtra’s ministerial council and oath-taking ceremony. Following the day’s meeting, invitations were extended to Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party’s  Arvind Kejriwal and DMK leader MK Stalin. Aaditya Thackeray, who took oath as the Worli MLA, reached 10 Janpath on Wednesday night to invite Sonia Gandhi for the swearing-in ceremony.

Delhi: Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray at Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi's residence to invite her for the swearing-in ceremony of Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister of #Maharashtra, tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/RMw65ofgD0

— ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2019

Uddhav Thackeray along with wife Rashmi met Koshyari at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday raised security concerns over the swearing-in ceremony of Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister at Shivaji Park, and said holding such events at a public ground should not become a regular feature. “We do not want to say anything about tomorrow’s ceremony…we are only praying that nothing untoward happens,” the court said while hearing a plea on whether the Shivaji Park was a playground or a recreation ground. After Uddhav’s swearing in, Maharashtra will have a chief minister from the  Sena after 20 years. Uddhav, 59, will be sworn in as the chief minister in an evening ceremony at the sprawling Shivaji Park, where his father and Sena founder Bal Thackeray addressed his famous Dussehra rallies. The last Sena man to occupy the chief minister’s chair was Narayan Rane in 1999, after Manohar Joshi, who in 1995 became the first Sena chief minister. Thursday’s swearing in ceremony follows days of dramatic political developments, which included a three-day government formed by unexpected support from Ajit , who has since returned to the NCP fold. With inputs from agencies