Uddhav Thackeray sworn in as 18th CM of Maharashtra

After a struggle over a month, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray was on Thursday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Uddhav, 59, the youngest son of late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, at the historic Shivaji Park at Dadar here.

Along with Uddhav, the leader of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, six Cabinet-rank ministers were sworn in.

They are Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai, NCP’s Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal, and Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut.

In an unusual gesture of humility, soon after completing the formalities, Thackeray stepped to the front of the stage and knelt down, touched his hands and head on the floor to express his gratitude to the people of Maharashtra for the honour bestowed on him.

At least three chief ministers from other states, six former Maharashtra CMs like Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde, Manohar Joshi, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan and Devendra Fadnavis were present.

Other prominent personalities from all the three parties included Abhishek Manu Sanghavi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kapil Sibal, Rajiv Shukla, Praful Patel, Kishore Tiwari, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut, Arvind Sawant, Rohit Pawar, Aditya Thackeray and Rashmi Thackeray, the wife of Uddhav Thackeray.

NCP's Ajit Pawar, his son Parth, Uddhav’s aunt Kunda (mother of Raj Thackeray) who was seen shedding tears of joy at her nephew’s ascent as CM, and other invitees, guests.