In a surprise move, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term on Saturday morning while Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP)Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as his deputy.

The oath ceremony was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhawan.

People had given us a clear mandate, but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties, as a result, President's Rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable government not a 'khichdi' government," Fadnavis said after taking oath as Maharashtra CM again.

The development comes at a time when the talks between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena over government formation Maharashtra seeminglyreached the final stage on Friday. Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chiefminister of the alliance government. However, things changed overnight as NCPdecided to give support to the BJP which emerged as the single largest party inMaharashtra Assembly election. BJP could not stake claim to form a governmentas its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on having a government under 50:50 formulaand rotating the Chief Minister's post. Shiv Sena later parted its ways withBJP to explore ways to form a government.It may be recalled that Sharad Pawarhad met Prime Minister Narendra Modi day on Thursday in Delhi."From resultday to this day, no party was able to form government, Maharashtra was facingmany problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stablegovernment," Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's nephew, said after taking oath asthe deputy CM. Soon after Fadnavis and Pawar took oath as Maharashtra CM andDeputy CM, respectively, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the twoleaders and said he is "confident they will work diligently for the brightfuture of Maharashtra."  After noneof the major parties failed to stake claim to form government, President's Rulewas imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed byShiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.