Five former Maharashtra chief ministers including Fadnavis accepted junior roles

New Delhi, July 01: In a very surprising turn of events, Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

Fadnavis did not indicate that he would be the deputy while announcing the name of Shinde as CM. He said that he would not be part of the government. It is said that Fadnavis accepted the position after the central leadership requested him to do so.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that on Twitter that Fadnavis decided to join the government on the advise of BJP chief J P Nadda. This decision is a sign of his true loyalty and service towards Maharashtra. For this I heartily congratulate him, Shah said on Twitter.

Fadnavis served as the CM from 2014 to 2019 and also became CM briefly after the 2019 elections. It is however rare in politics that a former CM accepts a junior position in the government.

However Maharashtra has several times witnessed such a situation in the past. Congress leader Shankarrao became the CM in 1975 before being replaced by Vasantdada Patil in 1977. A year later Sharad Pawar brought down the government and became CM. Chavan became the finance minister in the Progressive Democratic Front government led by Pawar.

Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar who served as the chief minister from June 1985 to March 1986 later became a revenue minister in the Sushilkumar Shinde government.

Narayan Rane while with the Shiv Sena became Maharashtra CM in 1999 and served for less than a year. Later he left the Sena and became a revenue minister in the Congress government headed by Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Ashok Chavan who was Maharashtra CM from 2008 and 2010 became the PWD minister in 2019 in the Uddhav Thackeray led MVA government.