Aaditya invites Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh for Uddhav Thackeray's swearing-in as Maharashtra CM

Aaditya Thackeray met both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan in Delhi and invited to them attend the swearing-in ceremony of his father Uddhav Thackeray as Maharashtra chief minister.

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@INCIndia

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday (November 27) met Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and invited them for the swearing-in ceremony of his father and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as Maharashtra Chief Minister at 6:40 pm on Thursday (November 28).

Aaditya, who won the October Maharashtra Assembly election from Worli, met Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence. The Congress later tweeted a photo of the meeting of the two leaders.

It is to be noted that the Congress is part of the three-party coalition 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' (MVA), which also includes Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party. Talking to media after the meeting, Aaditya, 29, said that he went to meet Sonia Gandhi to invite her for the oath-taking ceremony to be held at Mumbai's iconic Shivaji Park.

Aaditya met former PM Manmohan at the latter's residence and invited him to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena supremo who is going to lead the MVA government in Maharashtra. Aaditya, who is also the Yuva Sena chief, was accompanied by Shiv Sena secretary Milind Narvekar.

In a related development, Uddhav Thackeray called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invited him to attend the swearing-in ceremony after sending an invitation card to the PMO office. The Prime Minister congratulated Uddhav Thackeray. Uddhav has specially invited around 400 farmers from various districts of Maharashtra to participate in his swearing-in ceremony. 

Earlier on Wednesday, senior NCP leader Praful Patel confirmed that the only Deputy Chief Minister in the new Maharashtra government will be from his party while the post of Assembly Speaker will go to the Congress. He added that there will be only one Deputy Chief Minister and that will be from the NCP.

Sources said that NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar is going to take oath as Deputy CM, while senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is emerging as the front-runner for the Speaker post.

On Tuesday (November 26), Thackeray was unanimously elected as the leader of the three-party alliance. MLAs of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena had met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and submitted a letter declaring Udhhav Thackeray as their leader, following which, he was asked to take oath as new chief minister of the state on November 28.

The political development came after BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis submitted his resignation as Chief Minister to the Governor on Tuesday as "the BJP fell short of the required number of MLAs to win the scheduled floor test". Supreme Court had asked the Fadnavis government to prove its majority in the 288-member Assembly before 5 pm on Wednesday.