Eknath Shinde to be Maharashtra CM, announces Fadnavis, to take oath at 7:30 pm

Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde to be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, announced BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday in a joint press conference.

The oath ceremony to be held at 7.30pm today, Fadnavis added.

Earlier today, in a bid to stake claim to form a new government in Maharashtra after Uddhav Thackeray announced resignation from the post on Wednesday evening, Fadnavis and rebel Shinde met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Earlier, it was considered a foregone conclusion that Fadnavis will become the CM for the third time, in alliance with the Shinde-led Sena rebels.

However, during the press conference, Fadnavis added, "I will be out of the government but will be taking care of it from outside."

Meanwhile, Shinde said, "The decision which we took today is for the Hindutva and ideology of Balasaheb along with the agenda of development in the constituencies of our MLAs."

"Whatever happened in last two and a half years was described by Fadnavis, and our work was stalled," he added.Shinde, who spent Wednesday night in a Goa hotel after returning from Guwahati with his camp, reached Mumbai this afternoon.

He also held a meeting today in Goa to decide on their future course of action.

Earlier, a meeting of the BJP core committee was held at Sagar Bungalow, the residence of former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai to further deliberate on the strategy for the course of action following Uddhav Thackeray's resignation as the Chief Minister on Wednesday. Party's top leaders including in-charge CT Ravi, Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Praveen Darekar and others were present in the meeting. Independent MLA Ravi Rana also reached his residence.

Uddhav Thackeray quit as Maharashtra Chief Minister yesterday, shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that he must prove his majority.

The Shiv Sena chief was left with only 13 MLAs after the revolt that played out in three BJP-ruled states. Eknath Shinde and a group of rebels first moved to Gujarat's Surat in luxury buses. They were flown to Assam's Guwahati in chartered flights. They landed in Goa last evening to prepare for a possible test of strength.

Who is Eknath Shinde? 

Eknath Shinde is an Indian politician and is currently the Member of Legislative Assembly from Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency of Thane, Maharashtra.

After Shinde's political guru, Anand Dighe's death in 2001, Shinde grew exponentially and played a crucial role in strengthening the Sena in the state, particularly in the Thane region. He has been responsible for organising the Sena’s major political events.

After Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane's revolt, it was Shinde who brought crowds to Sena rallies. During the 2019 political crisis, he wrestled back a few MLAs.

His son, Shrikant Shinde, is Sena's Member of Parliament from Kalyan.

Eknath Shinde has been elected for four back-to-back terms in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly -- 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. He was named Leader of the Opposition in 2014 after the Shiv Sena and the BJP fell out with each other.