When Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, it was a matter of coincidence.
Shinde (58) is a four-time MLA from Thane city while Fadnavis (51) is a five-term MLA from Nagpur.
Shinde and Fadnavis have known each other for over two decades and enjoy a good working relationship. Shinde has worked under Fadnavis but now the latter would have to work under the new Chief Minister.
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Incidentally, Shinde would be the seventh Chief Minister whose origins are from Western Maharashtra.
The six other Chief Ministers from the Western Maharashtra area are Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantdada Patil, Babasaheb Bhosale, Prithviraj Chavan, and Sharad Pawar and Sushilkumar Shinde.
Incidentally, the Satara district of Western Maharashtra has got its fourth Chief Minister -- the other Chief Ministers were Yashwantrao Chavan, Babasaheb Bhosale, and Prithviraj Chavan.
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Sharad Pawar’s family originally hails from Koregaon in Satara but they settled in Baramati in Pune.
Shinde hails from Jawali taluka of Satara.
Fadnavis incidentally is the second Deputy Chief Minister from Vidarbha -- the other being Nashikrao Tirpude, who hails from Bhandara.
Another coincidence is that Fadnavis is the fourth former Chief Minister who had accepted a junior post. The others are Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar, Narayan Rane and Ashok Chavan.
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