Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in along with nine cabinet colleagues at the Wankhede Stadium in a grand ceremony attended by top politicians, corporate bosses, celebrities and thousands of party workers. Adding spice to the colourful event was Uddhav Thackeray, who made a late entry with his wife Rashmi, following a lot of speculation on what the Shiv Sena will do.
Thackeray's visit, purportedly after fruitful negotiations over phone with BJP chief Amit Shah, was seen by many as a sign that the saffron alliance may be back on track again.Sources close to Thackeray said he agreed to attend the ceremony only after calls from the BJP top brass personally requesting him.
The 90-minute event, despite beginning on a chaotic note due to poor organisation that left thousands of workers and even VIPs stranded at the entrances, ended on a high note as Fadnavis took the effort to greet as many people as possible on his way out. Earlier, Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Fadnavis and his colleagues from the core committee Eknathrao Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawade and Pankaja Munde-Palve.
Besides these heavyweights, others to be inducted into the cabinet included party veteran from Ghatkopar Prakash Mehta, who was a minister in the 1995 Sena-BJP government; Chandrakant Patil, an MLC from the graduate constituency in Pune and who was tipped to be the new state BJP chief; and Vishnu Savara, a Scheduled Tribes legislator from Vikramgarh in Thane.Dilip Kamble, who won the Pune Cantonment constituency by defeating former Congress minister Ramesh Bagawe, and Vidya Thakur, the former Mumbai deputy mayor who trounced Sena bigwig Subhash Desai in Goregaon, were inducted as ministers of state.
Tawade included his mother Vijaya's name while taking oath.
Former chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan was the lone representative from the Congress at the function, while the NCP sent its entire pack of top leaders like Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Sunil Tatakare, Jayant Patil, Bhaskar Jadhav and Shivajirao Deshmukh.
While most the NCP leaders were seated in the last row on the stage, Praful Patel Patel sat on the front row with Chavan, senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Murlimanohar Joshi and chief ministers of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Goa, Chattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
Contrary to expectations that Bollywood and the corporate world will turn up in large numbers, there were very few celebrities at the swearing-in. Anil Ambani, Adi Godrej, Kumarmangalam Birla, Niranjan Hiranandani, Poonam Dhillon, Vivek Oberoi, Bharat Shah were among those present. Sources said actor Nana Patekar and singer Asha Bhosle arrived at the venue but returned due to chaotic situation.
After being sworn in, Fadnavis took blessings from Modi, Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi by touching their feet, before doing the same with his mother.
Promising an efficient and transparent administration with focus on development, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis lost no time in getting down to work, by clearing the path for a Right to Service Bill in the first Cabinet meet itself. Shortly after being sworn in at the Wankhede on Friday, Fadnavis asked Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya to prepare the draft of the legislation which could be introduced in the winter session of the State legislature, or the subsequent budget session.
Speaking at his first press conference held at Mantralaya later in the evening, Fadnavis said that the people have high hopes of the government. “In the first Cabinet meet we instructed Chief Secretary Kshatriya to have a draft of the Right to Service Bill ready within a month. It will be in the form of a citizen's charter, to provide better services to the people who can take legal recourse if they don't get them,“ Fadnavis said.
Under the RTI Act, citizens have a legal recourse and can approach the appellate authority if information is not given. The role of the government or a civic body is that of a service provider, but at present citizens do not have any recourse if they fail to receive the expected services. Government bodies will now be asked to provide a list of services and also a time frame which will reveal in how many days the service can be provided, he said.
Fadnavis further said that the financial situation of the State is not good. Already the State has a loan of Rs.3 lakh crore, Fadnavis said, adding that many populist schemes announced by the earlier government will only lead to an additional financial burden of Rs.52,000 crore. He said that there is no financial provision for the schemes and many of them are non-starters.“We will take a review of these schemes,“ he said.
The new chief minister said that his government will be a pro-people and transparent government, with focus on development. “At times, mistakes happen in the government, but there will be no malafide intention, we will ensure that,“ Fadnavis said, adding that it will take time to clear the situation created by 15 years of misrule by the earlier government.
Fadnavis has called a Cabinet meeting again on Saturday at 11 am, in which key departments such as finance, home, agriculture and energy have been asked to give exhaustive presentations of the focus areas of their departments. “People of Maharashtra have high expectations of us, and it is a big responsibility,“ he said. “We will provide an efficient and transparent administration.“
Fadnavis also told reporters that he had personally called Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and invited him for the swearing-in. He said that talks with the Shiv Sena are heading in a positive direction.
On action against former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam, Fadnavis said, “Wherever action is needed, it will be taken. Not with a person in mind, but in the interest of the State, we will take action,“ he said.
Portfolios will be allocated to the seven Cabinet and two ministers of state on Saturday.
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