What was Devendra Fadnavis' first decision after taking oath as Maharashtra CM?

After reaching the Mantralaya, the three leaders were given a traditional welcome by the staff.

Hours after taking their oaths, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputies Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde took charge of their responsibilities at the state's secretariat. In his first decision as the CM, the BJP leader approved monetary help to a Pune family.

Devendra Fadnavis before taking oath as CM of Maharashtra, during the swearing ceremony at Azad Maidan, in Mumbai. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times)

After reaching the Mantralaya, the three leaders were given a traditional welcome by the staff. Fadnavis and his deputies then offered floral tributes to the portraits of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Jijabai, BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule.

Fadnavis, Shinde and Pawar then chaired the first cabinet meeting of the new government and interacted with senior officials. The 20th chief minister of Maharashtra then approved financial help of ₹5 lakh to the family of Pune resident Chandrakant Kurhade.

Kurhade's wife had applied for financial assistance from the chief minister's relief fund. The family will use the money for Chandrakant Shankar Kurhade's bone marrow transplant treatment.

The first signature that I have done today is that I have decided to give ₹5 lakhs from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund to a patient for bone marrow transplant treatment... The kind of mandate we have received this time, I believe that there is a pressure of that mandate, the pressure of people's love on us and I feel that. When expectations are big, the challenge is also big, because people have expectations from you, so definitely there is pressure on me, and as far as the question of fiscal discipline is concerned, we will have to work on it, because we have made a very ambitious plan," he said.

The new CM said his government will fulfil the promises made in Mahayuti's manifesto.

"In the last 2.5 years, we have worked for the development of Maharashtra and from here too we will work for the development of Maharashtra and we will not stop now, the direction and speed is the same, only our roles have changed... We will take decisions for the betterment of Maharashtra. We want to complete the works that we mentioned in our manifesto," he said later.

Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday evening took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister, while leaders of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, were sworn in as deputy chief ministers at a grand ceremony in south Mumbai’s sprawling Azad Maidan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several union ministers and chief ministers of various states besides thousands of supporters of the Mahayuti alliance were present at the ceremony, which took place almost a fortnight after the results of the assembly elections were declared on November 23.

With inputs from PTI, ANI