Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar visited the iconic Shree Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai today, just a day after taking his oath of office. The visit, on the second day of his new tenure, marks a spiritual moment as Pawar seeks blessings for the successful fulfillment of his responsibilities in the state government. Accompanied by party colleagues, Ajit Pawar spent time offering prayers at the temple.
After weeks of speculation on the new roles for the leaders of the Mahayuti partners following their spectacular return to power in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP was sworn-in as Chief Minister Thursday while former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar of the NCP took oath of office as Deputy Chief Ministers.
The ceremony at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, where Governor C P Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the three leaders, was a star-studded event, attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bhupendra Patel. Also present were actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt and industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla.Barring the top three of the Mahayuti, which secured 230 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, no other leader was administered the oath of office. Under the rules, the state Cabinet can have a maximum of 43 ministers, including the Chief Minister.