Devendra Fadnavis: The architect of Maharashtra’s new political order

The story of the Chief Minister-elect is one of ambition, providence, and early success. In the third term, he must balance Hindutva with growth.

Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister-elect. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

Five years ago, in the 2019 monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, while looking for another term, recited a poem in the house: “Mi Punha Yein (I will return).” It went viral, praised by supporters and mocked by the opposition.

On November 23, 2019, Fadnavis took the oath as Chief Minister again, aided by NCP’s Ajit Pawar. The swearing-in ceremony shocked the nation, but the government could not last more than 70 hours. Fadnavis 2.0 was short lived.

But with hard work and the complete support of the central government, Fadnavis has indeed made his prophetic poem come true: he is set to become the Chief Minister of India’s richest State yet again.

Fadnavis’s story is one of ambition, providence, and early success. At just 22, he became a corporator in Nagpur. At 27, he became the Mayor of Nagpur. Two factors aided him: His father, Gangadhar Fadnavis, was an MLC, although he passed away before his son entered politics; the young Fadnavis also had a close association with RSS (headquartered in Nagpur), the strongest factor that led to his political rise from Nagpur to Delhi. At 29, he was elected into the Assembly, representing the Nagpur Southwest Assembly constituency.

His first two terms (1999 and 2004) as an MLA were not extraordinary. He would speak essentially on civic matters related to Vidarbha. But by 2009, Fadnavis became a force to reckon with. That year, the BJP became the biggest party in the opposition camp. Eknath Khadse became Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. Fadnavis used to often take over from Khadse with his erudite speeches.

The years between 2009 and 2014 were volatile. The UPA-2 government was facing serious corruption charges along with economic recession. BJP at the national level upped its game and routinely attacked UPA leaders on alleged corruption. In Maharashtra, Khadse and Fadnavis took on this role. Fadnavis became a household name as he took part in TV debates almost every night for those five years. There was enough fodder to attack the UPA: the Adarsh Housing Society scandal, after which Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan (then with the Congress) had to resign; the Commonwealth Games scam, where the president of the Indian Olympic Association and Congress MP, Suresh Kalmadi, came under fire; the Lavasa scam, where the plan to build a hill station in Pune district got into controversy and was allegedly linked to NCP chief Sharad Pawar; the 2G scam, where two real estate giants of Mumbai were allegedly linked to Sharad Pawar too.

It helped Fadnavis that during this time, the BJP’s internal politics turned in his favour. Sudhir Mungantiwar, from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur, the party’s State president, was a close confidante of Nitin Gadkari. Gopinath Munde, the party’s tallest leader, was, however, in competition with Gadkari. So, to make sure that the State unit remains under his control ahead of the crucial 2014 elections, Munde lobbied to change the State BJP chief and favoured Fadnavis, who he was close to, as a replacement. And this is was how, Fadnavis, an MLA, became the State president in 2013.

In the 2014 Assembly election, the BJP went solo. Fadnavis, now a known figure, pulled in massive crowds at rallies. When the BJP became the single largest party with 122 MLAs in 2014, it had two choices for Maharashtra’s Chief Minister: Gadkari, then the Union transport minister, and Fadnavis. While Gadkari was seen as a ‘competitor’ to Narendra Modi, Fadnavis was not. And so, Fadnavis rose to the position of Chief Minister for the first time in 2014.

As he rose in power, Fadnavis never looked back. As an administrator, Fadnavis made his mark: In Mumbai and the suburbs, he pushed for a metro network to enhance transport; the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, India’s longest sea bridge, became a reality; for rural Maharashtra, Fadnavis came up with the Jalyukt Shivar scheme, a micro irrigation programme (which however was not without criticism from experts).

Fadnavis faced three of the biggest challenges during the first term. First was the Maharashtra drought of 2016. Second, the agriculture crisis, where for the first time in the history of independent India, farmers went on strike in 2017. Fadnavis’s handling of this strike was criticised by many farmer leaders. The third crisis was the Maratha protest. The rape of a minor girl from the State’s biggest community was a trigger point, leading to a massive protest by the community across the State. The Maratha reservation demand became a focal point. But despite this, Fadnavis managed to get his party to win 10 municipalities and more than 200 municipal councils in the 2017 and 2018 local body elections. BJP also won 80 per cent of zilla parishads (district body) in this term.

Unlike in 2014, the BJP and Shiv Sena (then united) fought the 2019 Assembly election in alliance. BJP’s tally was reduced, but it stopped at 105. Shiv Sena won 56 seats. This was when a turning point in Fadnavis’s fortunes as well as in State politics came. Uddhav Thackeray quit the NDA after a tussle and joined hands with the Congress and NCP. Thackeray eventually became Chief Minister. Fadnavis’s stint as Chief Minister with Ajit Pawar ended in 70 hours. Still number one within his party, Fadnavis became Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

As Leader of the Opposition, Fadnavis was aggressive, always in attack mode. But this was seen as his desperation for power. From here began the darkest chapter in the history of Maharashtra politics. To topple the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), BJP used its entire government machinery: the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI, and the Income Tax Department.

The central government was determined to topple the Maharashtra government; the results came in June 2022. Thackeray’s lieutenant, Eknath Shinde, broke away with 40 MLAs. Later, Shinde himself said publicly that Fadnavis was the architect of his rebellion. This time, Fadnavis’s supporters believed he would become Chief Minister. But surprisingly, the BJP’s high command went with Shinde. Fadnavis himself had to make the announcement; he had said he would play the role of a guide. But within minutes of this statement, the BJP national president publicly asked him to reconsider his decision and take on the mantle of Deputy Chief Minister in the Shinde government.

This was the lowest point in Fadnavis’s political career in the last 10 years. Later, Ajit Pawar broke away from NCP, joined the government and became the second Deputy Chief Minister.

But being stubborn, Fadnavis didn’t stop there. He kept working hard for the party and to secure his own position within the party. In the past two years, he took complete control of Maharashtra BJP. When in June 2024, NDA lost badly to MVA in Maharashtra, Fadnavis offered to resign as Deputy Chief Minister. He studied the defeat well. Maratha consolidation and the unity of Muslims and Dalits brought success to MVA. Since then, with the help of RSS, Fadnavis began planning for the Assembly elections. Be it welfare schemes, high-pitched Hindu-Muslim binary campaigns, or the consolidation of OBC votes, Fadnavis planned everything minutely and executed them ruthlessly.

The rest is history. His party won an unprecedented 132 seats.

Meanwhile, by 2029, Prime Minister Modi will be 79 years old. If he decides to stay out of electoral politics, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Fadnavis will be the two top choices. One is the aggressive Hindutva face, and the other, while a proponent of Hindutva too, is also a development-orientated one.

With RSS’s unconditional backing and with command over a resource-rich State, Fadnavis’s new era of political power may have just begun.