MUMBAI:
Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was on Sunday elected unopposed as the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Speaker Nanabhav Patole announced the name of Mr Fadnavis to the prestigious post, amid applause and thumping of desks by the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi members and the Opposition benches.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders like Jayant Patil, Eknath Shinde and Balasaheb Thorat congratulated Mr Fadnavis and welcomed his election to the post. The 49-year-old was elected as the first-ever BJP CM of the state in October 2014 and later sworn-in again in November 2019, along with NCP’s Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM.
However, the two-man government collapsed in barely 80 hours, paving the way for the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress’ MVA regime. Fadnavis hails from Nagpur and was elected as Nagpur Municipal Corporation Mayor for five years in 1997 – the second youngest ever in India.
