Uddhav Sworn in as Maharashtra CM in Grand Show at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park

Among those present were Sharad Pawar, Devendra Fadnavis, Jayant Patil, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Mumbai: Bringing the curtains down on weeks of uncertainty and slick political power play, Uddhav Thackeray, the third Shiv Sena chief minister and the first from the Thackeray family, was sworn in as Maharashtra’s chief minister at a packed Shivaji Park on Thursday.

Uddhav Thackeray will hold the first Cabinet meeting of the new alliance government at around 8 pm. His government is an alliance of the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. Together, the alliance is known as the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’.

The last Shiv Sena chief ministers, Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane, came to occupy the top post in the 1990s.

Among those present were Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who has emerged as a key player in the political turns in the state, former chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was sworn in and forced to resign on realising that he had inadequate support, and BJP’s Chandrakant Patil.

Also read: Maharashtra Live: Uddhav Thackeray Sworn in as CM

Also present were NCP chief Sharad Pawar, party leaders Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi, Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, besides the state leadership of the tri-party coalition. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, DMK’s M.K. Stalin, senior Congress leaders Kabil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi were present too.

A smattering of ministers too took oath along with Uddhav.


NCP leader and one-time Sena man Chhagan Bhujbal was the second person to be sworn in. He invoked social reformers and radical anti-caste leaders Jotiba Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Savitribai Phule, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as well as Bal Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde invoked the late Bal Thackeray – a dominant presence even among posters held by attendants – and the late Anant Dighe in his speech while taking the oath. Senior leader Subash Desai also took oath.

NCP leader Jayant Patil invoked Sharad Pawar amid cheers while being sworn in.

Of all those sworn in today, only two leaders, Bhujbal and Raut are Bahujans. This cabinet has few Bahujan leaders and even fewer women. Not one woman MLA was sworn in today.


Congress senior leader Balasaheb Thorat, an eight-time MLA was sworn in too as was Congress’s Nitin Raut. Raut was cabinet minister of Employment Guarantee and Water Conservation in the state until 2014. He was one the only one to swear on Buddha during his oath taking.

The portfolios of those who took oath has not been revealed yet.

Ajit Pawar was not among those who took oath on Thursday.