MUMBAI: The grand, star-studded swearing-in ceremony of the Mahayuti govt at Azad Maidan on Thursday failed to attract MVA leaders.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, and even the Congress top brass, including Congress state unit chief Nana Patole and Congress city unit chief Varsha Gaikwad, were not seen at the event.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray was also not present, but he wished the new govt on X.
Uddhav Thackeray’s son, MLA Aaditya Thackeray, also did not attend the ceremony.
Devendra Fadnavis, who took oath as chief minister at Azad maidan, had attended Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in in 2019 at Shivaji Park in Dadar. Raj Thackeray, too, was present at Shivaji Park in 2019.
Fadnavis’s presence had come as a surprise as the Shiv Sena decision to break away from the BJP to create the MVA had robbed Fadnavis of the chance to return to power as chief minister again in 2019.
After his oath-taking, Fadnavis said he had called opposition politicians as well as Raj Thackeray. “I personally called Raj and Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan and all such important people. I invited them all. They all wished me but for some reason they could not attend the swearing-in ceremony. Political conversation across parties has not ended in Maharashtra. We are not blood-thirsty, so to say, and this must remain so in Maharashtra,” Fadnavis said in his press conference.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve questioned the expenditure of taxpayer money for the swearing-in of only three ministers.
“We have congratulated Devendra Fadnavis. But only three of them took oaths. A good event could have been organised at Raj Bhavan also, but this govt is coming up on the back of farmer suicides and the corruption of the fallen statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj,” Danve said.
