MUMBAI: The new Mahayuti government will be sworn in on December 5 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, state BJP unit said.
"The oath-taking ceremony of the Mahayuti Government in Maharashtra will be held in the presence of Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 5 PM at Azad Maidan, Mumbai," state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule stated on X on Saturday evening.
Earlier a senior BJP leader had said that the new government will be formed on December 5 with Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the frontrunner to become the next chief minister again.
In the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.
However, even after the announcement of poll results a week ago (on November 23), the formation of the government has been delayed as the tripartite alliance is yet to decide on who will be the next chief minister.
Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar met BJP president J P Nadda and Union minister Amit Shah late Thursday to discuss a power-sharing pact for the next government.
A key Mahayuti meeting scheduled on Friday was put off and likely to take place on Sunday now as caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde headed to his native village in Satara district, delaying government formation further.
Another BJP leader had informed that a meeting will be held on December 2 to pick the BJP legislature party leader, he said.
Caretaker CM Shinde has made it clear that he will fully support BJP leadership's decision to name the next CM, and that he won't be a hurdle in the process, while Ajit Pawar-led NCP has backed Fadnavis for the chief minister's post.
In the assembly elections, Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback.
The grand old party registered one of its worst performances in the state assembly polls after it won only 16 seats.
Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) could bag only 10 seats, whereas Uddhav Thackeray's (UBT) won 20.