BJP's crisis man, Devendra Fadnavis is all set to take his tenure's baton forward

After receiving a historic mandate by the people of Maharashtra at the state’s assembly elections, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is all set to be sworn in as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister on 5th of December at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, marking his third term in the CM post. The BJP leadership finalized Devendra Fadnavis as its choice for the position today, putting an end to the suspense surrounding the state’s leadership. His name was presented before the newly elected BJP legislators, who unanimously approved his selection.

The oath-taking ceremony comes two weeks after the BJP-led Mahayuti secured a massive victory in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, winning 230 of 288 seats with BJP alone grabbing 132 seats out of 148 seats which makes an impeccable 91 percent success rate. Preparations for the grand event are underway at Azad Maidan, as Fadnavis prepares to officially stake claim to form the government after meeting with the state Governor CP Radhakrishnan.

At the BJP legislators’ meeting, Devendra Fadnavis expressed his gratitude, saying he was honored to lead the legislature party. He acknowledged the support of the BJP’s 132 MLAs and credited the party’s “double engine” government for its vision of development in Maharashtra.

From Corporator to Comeback man: Devendra Fadnavis

Devendra Fadnavis, age 54 is BJP’s prominent leader and backroom strategist from Maharashtra has been under the realm of politics for over three decades. He was born into a Marathi Brahmin family on 22nd July, 1970 in Nagpur. His father, Gangadhar Fadnavis, was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, while his mother, Sarita Fadnavis, hailed from the Kaloti family of Amravati. She also served as a director of the Vidarbha Housing Credit Society.

Fadnavis began his education at Indira Convent but later transferred to Saraswati Vidyalaya in Nagpur after his father, a Jan Sangh member, was jailed during the Emergency. He graduated with a degree in Law from Nagpur University, pursued postgraduate studies in Business Management, and earned a diploma in Project Management from DSE Berlin, Germany.

His political career began early after he entered student politics by getting into Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1989. In 1992, when he was only 22 years old, he was elected as a Corporator for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Five years later, Fadnavis became India’s second-youngest mayor, earning him recognition as a promising leader.

In 1999, he contested his first assembly election and won, becoming a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Since then, he has consistently represented Nagpur in the state legislature. Known for his clean reputation, stress upon development and firm stand upon the ideology of Hindutva. Fadnavis gained prominence ahead of the 2014 assembly elections and after BJP emerged as the largest political party in the Maharashtra Assembly election of 2014 by grabbing 122 seats and Devendra Fadnavis was made the Chief Minister. He served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019 where he came up with significant policies and development for the state. 

During his tenure as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019, Devendra Fadnavis prioritized urban connectivity with projects like the Mumbai Coastal Road and expedited metro systems in Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur, aimed at modernizing public transportation and easing congestion.

He in his tenure addresses the Drought and Agricultural reform concerns.He came up with The Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan addressing drought by creating over 600,000 water conservation structures across 22,000 villages, transforming it into a people’s movement. He also implemented the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Yojana, waiving ₹34,022 crore in loans to alleviate farmers’ financial burdens. The Magel Tyala Shettale scheme supported sustainable irrigation, achieving over 108% of its targets.

Devendra Fadnavis ran a digital governance focusing upon development of the state and economic state. By enacting the Right to Service Act, Fadnavis ensured online access to 393 public services. Maharashtra also became the first state to digitize its police force with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network. His leadership attracted substantial foreign direct investment, driving economic growth through initiatives like the Make In India Summit and Magnetic Maharashtra, which secured ₹20 lakh crore in investment commitments.

In 2019, the Maharashtra state with BJP again becoming the largest party with 105 seats under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis but its alliance partner Shiv Sena in control of Uddhav Thackeray refused to support BJP for its own political vested interest and withdrew its support. After this, the largest emerging political party in the election, BJP, joined forces with a faction of the NCP led by Ajit Pawar to form a coalition, with Devendra Fadnavis returning as Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar serving the role of Deputy Chief Minister. However, the NCP’s national leadership disapproved of this alliance and declared that it would not support the BJP. Consequently, on Tuesday, November 26, Devendra Fadnavis announced his resignation during a press conference in Mumbai. Shiv Sena who broke the alliance came in support of Congress-NCP alliance to form the grand alliance named Mahavikas Agadi and formed the government with Uddhav Thackeray becoming the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar as the Deputy Chief Minister.

But in 2022, the Shiv Sena broke down into two factions with one led by prominent Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and other by Uddhav Thackeray. The faction led by Eknath Shinde gave the support to BJP and the two went up to form the government with Eknath Shinde serving as the Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy Chief Minister. The reformation of government and coming back in power was termed as refined political strategy of Devendra Fadnavis and highlighted the reason why BJP’s senior command held him high. 

NCP too broke down into two factions with Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar, leading the two blocs of which the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar gave support to the BJP led alliance. In 2024, Maharashtra went in polls with two alliances fighting for political power, Mahavikas Agadi which had Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) in alliance and Mahayuti which had BJP, ShivSena and NCP as partners. Mahayuti sweeped the alliance by grabbing 230. 

The political scenarios that came into picture post 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election underline the strategic masterclass Devendra Fadnavis accompanies. He has established himself as the most effective asset for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Engineering a landslide victory in the state of Maharashtra which has one of the most complex political calculations beyond political imagination.