'Would have sat at home if party had told me': Deputy CM Fadnavis

Brushing aside rumours of being unhappy for being demoted to a Deputy CM, Devendra Fadnavis said, 'I would have even sat at home had the party told me - the same party that made me a CM.'

The BJP and Devendra Fadnavis faced several taunts last week after Eknath Shinde was chosen to be Maharashtra chief minister with the saffron party announcing minutes before the oath ceremony that Fadnavis, who is a former chief minister of the state, will take charge as Shinde’s deputy.

The former Maharashtra chief minister was speaking after the Eknath Shinde-BJP govt won the trust vote in the state assembly.

In a specially convened Assembly session, the new government won the trust vote crossing the majority mark by 20 votes.

After the death of one MLA, the Assembly's strength was reduced to 287 out of which the Shinde government received 164 votes of confidence.

Praising the new CM, Fadnavis said, 'A true Shiv Sainik is finally at the helm of the government,' adding that despite winning the people's mandate in 2019 with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, majority was deliberately taken away from them.

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'With Eknath Shinde, we have once again formed our government with Shiv Sena,' the former CM said.

'I had once said that I'll come back. But when I said that, several people mocked me. I've come back today and brought him (Eknath Shinde) along with me. I won't take revenge on people who mocked me. I'll forgive them, everything isn't taken to heart in politics,' he added.

Playing with words of his critics Fadnavis said, 'People taunt that it's an ED govt. Yes, it's an ED govt-govt of Eknath Devendra.'

Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis took oath on June 30, less than 24 hours after MVA government's CM Uddhav Thackeray resigned. Rest of the ministers of the 'ED government' are yet to be sworn in.