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After all the ridicule and controversies, Devendra Fadnavis has finally come once again.
The 54-year-old has emerged as the tallest BJP leader in Maharashtra, surpassing even Nitin Gadkari after the party’s highest decision-making body endorsed his candidature for the CM post on December 4.
Like it or not, Fadnavis, who was forced to serve as deputy CM after being chief minister for the entire tenure almost three years ago, has surprised both his supporters and opponents. Mahayuti’s landslide victory in assembly elections,
It is said that patience is not just the ability to wait – it is also how we behave while waiting. Fadnavis can be a perfect example of this.
Was the punchline of his 2019 assembly election campaign, for which he became a laughing stock I am here again (I will return). He became CM for three days and Ajit Pawar was his deputy, but this experiment proved ridiculous.
Those days are gone.
Despite being a Brahmin and an RSS fanatic, Fadnavis is a popular and accepted face of the BJP across Maharashtra. work card,
Before Fadnavis there was late Gopinath Munde Public leader and OBC face of BJP. Late Pramod Mahajan was another stalwart of the party from Maharashtra who was considered suitable for the post of Prime Minister, loved by both Marxists and Mandalists.
But compared to Munde, Mahajan and his one-time mentor Nitin Gadkari, who brought him into politics, Fadnavis is a completely different politician. He is now credited with dismantling the Congress party, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP in less than six months after their Lok Sabha debacle, in which the BJP and its allies suffered huge losses.
That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his fair share of controversies, as infamous as he is now. “Vote Jihad” comment during a campaign rallyStill, how much he is able to keep his party’s star high remains to be seen, as the badly defeated opposition continues to claim that the election was not fair.
Modi’s support in every situation has helped the rise of Fadnavis, whose success has put him in the same category as top BJP leaders like Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
He has continuously enjoyed the trust of the BJP high command since 2014. His attempt to grant reservation to Marathas was termed a “surgical strike” on the quota issue by his supporters. Ultimately it could not withstand scrutiny in the Supreme Court.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Fadnavis was the favorite punching bag of Maratha reservation movement leader Manoj Jarange Patil, who was seen as the kingmaker at that time.
But Patil became inactive and is now being challenged by OBCs in the state. The assembly elections have not only decimated the opposition parties but also changed the power game and grammar of politics in middle-class Maharashtra.
The regional parties, which have been controlling power since 1995, are no longer in a dictatorial position after the split between Shiv Sena and NCP. For the BJP, Fadnavis is its best bet in Maharashtra, which is also belatedly realizing that a section of the high command is working against its interests.
This success is as much a challenge as it is an opportunity for Fadnavis. He needs carte blanche to run Maharashtra, as he has not given any chance to Eknath Shinde or Ajit Pawar to complain about him, which shows that all three have a very good working relationship.
This does not happen so easily in politics. The opposition MVA is a perfect example of lack of political understanding, as was seen during the assembly elections. The critics of the BJP-led grand alliance are so weak that they do not even have a recognized opposition leader. In comparison, Fadnavis was a balanced leader who was a master of the art of patience.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. How Fadnavis leads as chief minister of India’s richest state, which faces a host of problems ranging from agrarian distress, unemployment and urban neglect, will decide the future of many political actors in Maharashtra.
But for now, Fadnavis can enjoy the glory of fulfilling his promise I am here again.
(Sunil Gatade is a former Associate Editor, Press Trust of India. Venkatesh Kesari is a freelance journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own.The QuintNeither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
