Devendra Fadnavis

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Career

2014-19

Sep 22, 2019: The Times of India

Most rules of the political game in Maharashtra were upturned when a Brahmin from Vidarbha, Devendra Fadnavis, was anointed as chief minister by PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah in 2014. Not only were caste equations overlooked in a state dominated by the Marathas and leaders of the community, which forms 30% of the state’s population, but also BJP heavyweights such as Nitin Gadkari, who is also from Vidarbha.

Fadnavis has since trumped all inhouse challenges to his leadership within the state, got along extremely well with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray despite the Sena’s repeated barbs at the BJP and at the same time blocked the Sena’s efforts to undermine the BJP.

Significantly, his systematic poaching of Maratha satraps from the Congress and the NCP has shown that he has been able to get the better of Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar and others who long dominated state politics by ending an unstated pact that saw the two sides leave each other’s turfs alone.

The CM’s focus on developing infrastructure, the Jalyukt Shivar scheme he has pushed to promote irrigation, and the farm loan waiver has paid some dividends, while he showed plenty of skill in handling the Maratha quota agitation despite being only the second Brahmin to occupy the top post (after Manohar Joshi of the Sena, who was CM from 1995 to early 1999 before Bal Thackeray replaced him with Narayan Rane).

Fadnavis honed his political skills in the past five years and has emerged as the BJP’s troubleshooter in Maharashtra, much in the mould of Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde, the party bigwigs from the 1990s. Fadnavis’s shoot-straightfrom-the-hip style has helped rejuvenate the BJP, especially in Mumbai and the bustling Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where the Sena once ruled with an iron hand, bringing the BJP tally just one seat short of the Sena’s in the BMC in 2017. In the rural heartland where the BJP has a poor presence, Fadnavis not only cajoled and coerced the ageing Congress-NCP satraps into falling in line but led the BJP to victories in most of the civic and local body polls in the past five years.

Thus it is Fadnavis who will singlehandedly run the BJP machine for the assembly polls, with intra-party rivals such as Eknath Khadse marginalised after they were forced to quit following allegations of graft. However, much depends on whether Fadnavis can strike a fine caste balance while distributing party tickets.

The Sena has already responded favourably to his persuasive skills, and Uddhav Thackeray’s statements have indicated that the Sena is willing to accept a lesser share of seats. Fadnavis’s task now would be to aim at a majority for the BJP itself.