Uddhav sworn-in as Maha power games end

Bringing to an end the month-long political drama in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was sworn-in as chief minister, along with six other ministers,

Bringing to an end the month-long political drama in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was sworn-in as chief minister, along with six other ministers, on Thursday evening at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. Thackeray will lead the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government (MVA) – an alliance between the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

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Uddhav, who is the first member from the Thackeray family to hold the state’s top post, invoked his father, the late Bal Thackeray, while taking oath, as a packed Shivaji Park – where the Shiv Sena was founded in 1966 – applauded.

The 59-year-old is the 19th chief minister of Maharashtra. However, considering the number of terms, he is the 29th chief minister of the state (some chief ministers had multiple terms).

For the Sena, too, the chief minister’s post has returned to the party after 20 years. Narayan Rane, who is now with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the last chief minister from the Sena in 1999.

Six other leaders of the MVA – Sena’s Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai; NCP’s Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal; and Congress’s Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut – too were sworn-in as cabinet ministers on Thursday. However, their portfolios were not announced.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who caused a political storm by taking oath as deputy chief minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis last week, was not among those sworn-in, but is likely to be included in the cabinet at a later stage. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said party chief Sharad Pawar would decide on who will be the deputy chief minister and what role Ajit Pawar will play in the new government.

The swearing-in ceremony also turned into a show of stren-gth for the non-BJP parties. Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kapil Sibal and KC Venugopal along with Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath were seated alongside DMK chief MK Stalin and DMK MP TR Baalu.

Uddhav Thackeray’s cousin, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, too, was present and seated in the front row.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, too, were invited, but they did not attend the ceremony.

Meanwhile, the first lot of ministers in Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet heavily represented the Marathas, with four of them – Shinde, Desai, Thorat and Patil— from the community. The Maratha community, according to political observers, voted against the BJP and backed Sharad Pawar’s NCP in the Assembly polls.

The Congress brought in a Dalit face by including Raut, and the NCP gave representation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) by getting in Bhujbal.

Thackeray, meanwhile, is the first leader from the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) community to become the chief minister of Maharashtra. The CKP community has a minuscule population and has presence mostly in Mumbai and Konkan region.

Uddhav Thackeray chose two of his senior party leaders, as Desai is a trusted aide and an experienced hand, while Shinde is the party’s ‘go-to man’ in times of crises.

The Congress and NCP witnessed hectic backroom lobbying hours before the first lot of the ministers were to be sworn in along with Thackeray. NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who is eyeing the deputy chief minister’s post, was irked at not being included, said party leaders, who did not wish to be named.

Meanwhile, the Congress camp witnessed drama, too, with legislators from Vidarbha putting pressure on the party leadership that it should get representation. Either Ashok Chavan or KC Padvi was expected to be sworn in with Thorat, but later Nitin Raut was chosen to send out a message to the Dalit community.