Devendra Fadnavis to be Maharashtra's next Chief Minister

44-year old Fadnavis, who is also the party’s chief of Maharashtra unit, was on Tuesday elected as the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party by the newly elected MLAs of the party.

With this declaration, the curtains fell on the much-awaited debate – who will don the Chief Minister’s post.

Fadnavis, a three-time legislator from Nagpur will now become BJP's first Maharashtra chief minister.

On Tuesday morning, BJP legislative party comprising of newly elected MLAs held a meeting to elect their leader.

The meeting started at 11 am which was attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and party general secretary and new in-charge of party affairs in the state JP Nadda.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, OP Mathur attended the meeting as Central observers.

It has also been learnt that, leaders from the state including Prakash Javadekar, Ramdas Athawale, Pankaja Munde & Eknath Khadse were present in the meeting.

According to media reports, Fadnavis is expected to meet the Maharashtra Governor at 6 pm this evening to stake his claim to form the government.

He is expected to be sworn in as the new CM on October 31. Initially only four or five MLAs will take oath as ministers.

The swearing in ceremony will be held at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede stadium.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to fly in for the event.

The stadium has been chosen for its seating capacity of 60,000.

Other senior BJP leaders, celebrities and business leaders are expected to attend the event.

Fadnavis was the front-runner for the CM’s post right from the start.

But the race intensified after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari entered into the fray with a section of BJP’s newly inducted MLAs pitching for Gadkari for the coveted-post.

According to media reports, BJP MLAs from Vidarbha region, where the party has posted its strongest performance ever, lobbied for Union Minister as Chief Minister.

But, after meeting Fadnavis on Thursday, Gadkari distanced himself from the race.

He has said, “I am not in the Chief Minister’s race; I do not want to be the CM. I feel sad when people say this as I have always maintained that I am not willing to go to state," media quoted Gadkari as saying.

He also maintained that he is 'happy' in Delhi and was not planning to head to Maharashtra.

It has been learnt that, Gadkari withdrew following pressure from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP’s ideological parent.

Gadkari's exit paved the way for Fadnavis. Senior BJP Maharashtra leader Eknath Khadse had claimed on Tuesday morning that he is still not out of the race for the chief minister's post, but that claim didn't last long as BJP legislative party elected Fadnavis as their leader.

The BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 123 seats in the 288-member House in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Since the party didn’t attained an absolute majority (145), it is now in talks with its erstwhile coalition partner Shiv Sena (63), with whom BJP snapped ties ahead of the elections due to a seat sharing disagreement.

Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which won 41 seats, also offered unconditional outside support to BJP in Government formation.