Laddoo moment: Fadnavis with wife Amruta.

Young Fadnavis to lead BJP’s Maha govt; to walk on Modi’s footsteps

Youngest CM in the state after Sharad Pawar; a Brahmin, RSS man

Agency Report | Mumbai | 28 October, 2014 | 08:50 PM

Devendra Fadnavis will head Maharashtra's first BJP government after its newly elected legislators set aside their differences to pick the 44-year-old as their House leader.

Bharatiya Janata Party activists here and across the sprawling state celebrated after Eknath Khadse, who was a contender for the post, proposed Fadnavis’ name at a meeting overseen by party veterans from Delhi.

Fadnavis’ candidature was seconded by Vinod Tawde, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Pankaja Munde, daughter of the late Gopinath Munde who too was in the race for the chief minister’s post at one point.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh and party leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy, O.P. Mathur and J.P. Nadda were at the meeting at the Maharashtra Legislature complex.

Fadnavis will be Maharashtra’s youngest chief minister after Sharad Pawar, who was 38 when he took charge in 1978, and the second Brahmin to preside over the state after the Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi.

Fadnavis, who took to politics when he was barely 22 years old, pledged to provide good governance — a la Narendra Modi. “I assure the people of Maharashtra that we will make efforts to take Maharashtra forward the way (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has given good governance and is guiding the country on the path of development,” said Fadnavis, who is married to bank manager Amruta and father of a teenage daughter, Divija.

Speaking in Marathi and Hindi as supporters burst firecrackers and distributed sweets, Fadnavis credited the BJP’s showing in the assembly polls to Modi, party president Amit Shah and other party colleagues.

Informed sources said the BJP leadership decided after days of internal deliberations that Fadnavis would be the best bet to lead the party in the state after it came on top of a fractured electoral verdict.

Fadnavis is likely to be sworn in at a public ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium to be attended by Modi, Shah, BJP chief ministers and over 30,000 guests.

Hailing from Nagpur, the 1970-born Fadnavis has strong Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) connections that helped him overcome the challenge to his leadership, including by mentor and central minister Nitin Gadkari.

This will be for only the second time in the state that a non-Congress government will assume office.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP ran a coalition government led by Manohar Joshi and later Narayan Rane, both from the Sena, in 1995-99.

The BJP is the single largest party in the 288-seat house with 122 legislators, short of the half way mark needed for a legislative majority.

One legislator, G.M. Rathod, died of heart attack Monday, reducing its strength to 121.

The BJP has the support of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha’s sole legislator and the Shiv Sena as well as the unconditional backing of the Nationalist Congress Party.

But Fadnavis made no reference to the Shiv Sena, whose 25-year-old alliance with the BJP was dumped by the latter ahead of the elections amid a row over seat sharing.

After taking a stridently anti-BJP, anti-Modi line during the election campaign, the Sena warmed up to the BJP after it bagged only 63 seats, far less than 122 won by the BJP.

Until now, the Shiv Sena had always been the big brother to the BJP in Maharashtra.

His colleagues have high regard for Fadnavis, who, they say, keeps his word – a rare trait in politics today – and has a sound understanding of business matters. His oratory has won him many admirers.

Aware of the Maratha domination of Maharashtra politics, Fadnavis underplays his caste. “Maharashtra has moved beyond such criteria. Today’s youths want development, progress.”

Formerly known as Bombay State, Maharashtra was carved out as a separate entity May 1, 1960.
Maharashtra’s new chief minister-to-be is a down to earth man with RSS roots who became a BJP corporator when he was barely 22.

A late entrant to the political arena, the 1970-born Fadnavis’ rise in the BJP is considered virtually meteoric.

A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist while in school, he was with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, in college.

He learnt his first political lessons from his legislator-father, the late Gangadhar R. Fadnavis, and mother Sarita, who was a director with the Vidarbha Housing Credit Society.

In 1992, at age 22, Fadnavis surprised many by getting elected as a corporator and, five years later, became the youngest mayor of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The RSS is headquartered in Nagpur.

He was elected to the Maharashtra assembly for the first time in 1999. He won for a fourth time this year.

Armed with a law degree and a post-graduate degree in business management, Fadnavis can speak with authority on virtually any topic – and with an analytical mind.

He has bagged several national and international honours, including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s “Best Parliamentarian Award” in 2002-03.

“Fadnavis respects all and does no wrong to anyone… He will seek advice from colleagues and juniors but only follow his instincts. He is a patient man and can defuse all tensions,” a BJP leader said.

In a state where it has always been a junior partner to the Shiv Sena, the BJP took note of Fadnavis’ talents in mid-2013 when it catapulted him as the Maharashtra state unit president. He was 43 then, youngest in the BJP to hold the post.

Fadnavis was initially intended to balance the regional-caste criteria and be a suitable replacement for the other BJP veteran, Nitin Gadkari. But he quickly became the prime force to reckon with.

This year, he had the onerous task of proving his mettle in the Lok Sabha battle. Thanks to a Modi wave, it was not a difficult task and the BJP won 23 of the 48 seats — up from just nine in 2009.

In the run-up to the assembly polls, despite Modi’s presence, Fadnavis independently addressed around 100 election rallies, expanding his rapport with party activists — and became better known across the state. (IANS)