Devendra Fadnavis, who is facing his first assembly election as the chief minister of Maharashtra, is leading in the initial round of counting from Maharashtra’s Nagpur South West constituency. Fadnavis, who is seeking re-election for the fifth time, had won by 48,000 votes over Prafulla Gudadhe-Patil of the Congress party in the last assembly polls in 2014.
The trust the ruling party has put in the 49-year-old Fadnavis was evident when Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed him.
“In Delhi, you have got Narendra back, do the same in Maharashtra. Narendra in Delhi and Devendra in Mumbai. This is a super-hit formula,” Modi had said while addressing a rally in Maharashtra’s Jalna district.
Nagpur South West is a predominantly urban middle-class constituency, comprising mostly Bramhin and Kunbi, a sub-caste of Marathas, voters and is considered a BJP bastion. Voters here also have a prevalent sense of pride that their representative is the chief minister.
His main opponent is Congress’ Ashish Deshmukh, son of former state Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh. Ashish resigned as a BJP MLA from nearby Katol constituency ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Ashish Deshmukh is one of the opposition leaders that have asked the Election Commission to disqualify Fadnavis, citing his allegedly invalid nomination papers.
“We are getting a tremendous response from voters, because of Fadnavis’s work for the city and his clean image. The Opposition is challenging his affidavit as they have no issue to raise against him,” Sandip Joshi, the campaign committee coordinator for Fadnavis, had said earlier.
The stature of Fadnavis, a former mayor of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, has grown in Maharashtra politics.
Fadnavis has not only cemented his position as the chief minister in the past five years but also emerged the tallest leader in Maharashtra, putting in the shade even party veteran and another RSS favourite from Nagpur, Nitin Gadkari.
By engineering mass defections from the opposition he has also dented their morale just ahead of the polls.
Fadnavis’ party colleagues, rivals and analysts all agree that one reason for Fadnavis’ success is the complete backing he has from the BJP’s central leadership. He also has a powerful backer in the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP.
His ability to deliver victories in the BJP in successive elections, such as municipal and panchayat polls, consolidated his position as the chief minister and the undisputed leader of the party. His unblemished image in a state where politicians lost their posts because of scandals and allegations of financial irregularities was an advantage for him.
Fadnavis’ big development agenda across big investments in urban infrastructure and financial aid for irrigation projects has also helped.
The chief minster’s ability to keep the Shiv Sena’s ambitions under check and negotiate a deal, every time the two parties came together, benefitting the BJP helped him grow.
There is no doubt on who will lead the state if the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition wins power as the ruling party seeks a second term in power in the state.
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