Mumbai: He’s just been appointed Chief Minister of Maharashtra, but Devendra Fadnavis’ joy at this was weighed down with the responsibility of the new job.
“Rather than rejoicing over the position, I have become more cautious as I know people of the state have expectations from me,” he said on Tuesday evening.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar desc-ribed Mr Fadnavis, 44, as a young, down to earth personality with a clean image who would provide dynamic leadership.
“The party wants such a face for the CM candidate, who has no corruption charges against him, is reliable, has depth of knowledge of administration, and last but not least, is young,” Mr Javadekar said.
Mr Fadnavis said he would follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s example. “I would prefer more governance and less government. The size of the cabinet will be small and some departments will be consolidated”, he said.
While he did not give numbers, Mr Fadnavis indicated that the number of ministers would be less than 15 percent of the 288 seats in the house. Only a few ministers will be sworn in on October 31, and the cabinet will be expanded at a later date.
Talks with the Shiv Sena are still on at the national level, Mr Fadnavis confirmed, and the cabinet expansion would be done after the conclusion of talks.
After Mr Fadnavis’ election, BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar, who was pushing for Mr Nitin Gadkari for CM, said, “Earlier the party wanted Nitin Gadkari to be the CM. However, he declined... The party then backed Fadnavis and we have elected him.”
Ironically, Mr Khadse who had maintained that he was one of the contenders for the post of CM till the last minute, was forced to propose the name of Mr Fadnavis as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party.
However, after the ann-ouncement, Mr Khadse made a U-turn and blam-ed the media for “cre-ating a controversy”. He also said that the election of Mr Fadnavis was a “unanimous decision.”
