Devendra Fadnavis Vacates Chief Minister's Residence, Hunts For New Home

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who resigned only three days after he was sworn-in as the CM for a second term with the support of NCP leader Ajit Pawar, has vacated the official residence in South Mumbai. Sources said that Fadnavis, who hails from Nagpur, and his family members will continue to reside in the metropolis and that is why he has started hunting for a new house in Mumbai.

According to a police official posted at ‘Varsha’, the official CM bungalow in the upscale Malabar Hill area, a vehicle of a professional packers and movers company arrived in the afternoon to shift belongings of Fadnavis.

Fadnavis’s wife Amrita works at a senior position in Axis Bank and their daughter also studies in Mumbai. They had shifted to Mumbai after Fadnavis became Chief Minister in October 2014.

As the leader of the BJP’s legislature party, Fadnavis, elected from the Nagpur South West seat, is likely to become the Leader of Opposition in the new assembly.

Fadnavis' previous term as the chief minister lasted from October 31, 2014 to November 12, 2019, making him only the second CM after Vasantrao Naik of the Congress to last the full five-year term.

The second tenure of Fadnavis lasted from November 23 to November 26, 2019. The four-day-old BJP-led government collapsed on the eve of the supreme court-ordered floor test in the Assembly after Ajit Pawar quit as deputy CM citing "personal reasons".

Fadnavis too resigned while admitting that the BJP had lost majority in the House.

The collapse of the nascent government capped the month-long uncertainty in Maharashtra politics, which witnessed many twists and turns since the results of the assembly elections were declared on October 24.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday evening took oath as the new chief minister of Maharashtra. Thackeray’s family residence ‘Matoshree’ is located in suburban Bandra.

With PTI Inputs