The curtain has finally fallen on Maharashtra’s 11-day political suspense thriller and invitations have been sent out for the swearing-in ceremony of the state cabinet, which is scheduled to be held at South Mumbai’s historic Azad Maidan ground at 5 pm on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as other eminent dignitaries.

Notably, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis is all set to be sworn-in as the 21st chief minister of Maharashtra, which will be witnessed by chief ministers of 19 states, including former chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who has also been invited to the historic ceremony.

The oath-taking ceremony will be attended by nearly 2,000 VVIPs and 40,000 supporters. Invitations have been extended to chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-ruled states, sources said.

Former Maharashtra ministers like Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Chhagan Bhujbal are among those who have been invited to the high-voltage political event. Others including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, Nitin Gadkari and several other Union ministers as well as chief ministers will be present at the ceremony, among others.

Some of the politicians who will attend Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony are Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnudev Sai, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Haryana Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

Religious leaders like Namdev Shastri, Radhanath Swami Maharaj of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Gaurangdas Maharaj who is also from ISKCON, Janardan Hariji Maharaj, Prasad Maharaj and Jain Muni Lokesh have also been invited to the historic swearing-in ceremony.

A highlight of the oath-taking ceremony event at Azad Maidan on Thursday will be 10,000 BJP workers wearing T-shirts prominently featuring the BJP election campaign slogan ‘Ek Hai Toh Safe Hai’. Various other cultural programmes are also scheduled for the grand occasion, sources said.