Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis was on Friday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with nine other ministers.
44-year-old Fadnavis is only the second Brahmin Chief Minister after Shiv Sena's Manohar Joshi in the state dominated by Maratha politicians. Fadnavis has become the 27th CM of Maharashtra and the 18th person to hold the post. He is the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM.
Cabinet Ministers who were sworn in are Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde, all members of the BJP's state Core Committee, Prakash Mehta, Chandrakant Patil and Vishnu Savara. The Ministers of State are Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur.
The seniormost among them is Eknath Khadse (born in 1952), Leader of Opposition in the outgoing 12th State Assembly. A prominent leader from Jalgaon district in North Maharashtra, he was Finance Minister during the Shiv Sena-BJP regime in 1995-99.
Sudhir Mungantiwar (born 1962) is a former president of Maharashtra BJP and a close associate of Union minister Nitin Gadkari. He was a minister for some time during the Shiv Sena- BJP regime in 1995-99. He hails from Chandrapur district in Vidarbha.
Vinod Tawde (born 1963), who was effective as leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, hails from Sindhdurg district in coastal Konkan region and is an electronics engineering graduate.
Till two days ago, Chandrakant Patil, an MLC from Pune graduates seat, was tipped to succeed Fadnavis as the next state BJP chief. Hailing from Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, he has deep roots in RSS and often acts as a bridge between the Sangh Parivar and the state party organisation.
Pankaja Munde (born 1979) won her second term as MLA from Parli in Marathwada region. She was made a member of the state BJP core committee after the death of her father Gopinath Munde in a road accident in Delhi in June.
Vishnu Savara won from Vikramgadh constituency in Palghar district. He was a minister during the Sena-BJP government in the 90s.
Prakash Mehta represents Ghatkopar East constituency in Mumbai. He is a former Mumbai BJP president. He was a minister during the Sena-BJP government in the 90s.
Among the ministers of state who took oath today was also Dilip Kamble, who won the October 15 poll from Pune Cantonment defeating sitting MLA Ramesh Bagve, a former minister, by over 14,000 votes.
Vidya Thakur is former deputy mayor of Mumbai. She defeated Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai from Goregaon Assembly constituency in the recently held assembly polls.
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