Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis will be the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
He was elected as the leader of BJP legislature party by the newly elected MLAs of the party.
The name of Fadnavis, state BJP president, was proposed by Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Eknath Khadse and seconded by his counterpart in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde, and members of the party's core group Sudhir Mungantiwar and Pankaja Munde.
Hailing from Nagpur in eastern Maharashtra, Fadnavis, 44, pipped his mentor and strong contender Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to bag the coveted post.
Fadnavis, accompanied by other members of state BJP Core Committee, will call on Governor C Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan at 6.30 pm to formally stake claim to form his government.
Fadnavis will be sworn in as the new CM in a ceremony at Wankhede Stadium on October 31at 4:30pm in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Announcing the decision of the BJP legislature party to elect Devendra Fadnavis as its leader, senior BJP leader J P Nadda said that the BJP wants Shiv Sena to join the government but a final decision is yet to be taken and therefore, a small cabinet consisting of BJP MLAs only will take oath along with Fadnavis that day.
Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh and party general secretary and new in-charge of party affairs in the state JP Nadda were present in the meeting of the BJP legislature party.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 122 seats in the 288-member House.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has announced that its legislators will abstain from the Assembly in case BJP's minority government comes in power and is asked to prove its majority by the Governor.
