After a prolonged uncertainty over the government formation that lasted for nearly a month, Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday early morning took oath for the second consecutive term as the state chief minister, while Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as his deputy chief minister. This came as shock to everyone including media as they were kept in dark about the government formation.
Now reports have surfaced saying, National broadcaster Prasar Bharati wasn’t asked to cover Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in event on Saturday. According to Economic Times, DD news — the channel responsible for covering government events — was not even informed about the event.
Even neither DD’s Mumbai news unit was notified about the event nor the Mumbai Doordarshan Kendra. All India Radio was informed at the last minute as the correspondent in Mumbai was in touch with Fadnavis’ office, reported Economic Times.
An official told the leading daily, "Ideally, given the event's importance, it should have been live telecast by Doordarshan with a multi-camera setup, and also covered by AIR with bilingual commentary. But since everything happened so hurriedly, it is possible that there was no time to inform us and wait till the arrangements."
On Saturday, the month-long political impasse ended dramatically with Devendra Fadnavis returning as the chief minister again, backed by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. NCP leader Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as the deputy chief minister at Raj Bhavan. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath to the two in the morning ceremony.
The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday. The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in last month's assembly elections, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths. Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by Koshyari.
