After taking oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, paid floral tributes to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar at Mantralaya on Thursday.
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Fadnavis, who represents Nagpur in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, assumed office for the third time as the state's chief minister. The oath-taking ceremony, held at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, was attended by prominent political figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, and Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar.
The event also saw the presence of influential industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla, along with celebrities like cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and actors Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh.
The BJP, which emerged as the largest party with 132 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, leads the Mahayuti coalition, which has a majority of 230 seats. Fadnavis, Shinde, and Pawar had met Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan on Wednesday to formally present their claim to form the government, with letters of support from their coalition allies.