Mumbai: Maharashtra saw an average voter turnout of 64% on Wednesday, and will have to wait till October 19 to find out if any of its four major parties win a full majority in the 288-seat assembly. But a number of exit polls in the state predicted that even though the Bharatiya Janata Party will not cross the halfway mark by itself, it is still likely to emerge as the single largest party in Maharashtra.
If the BJP does succeed in dominating the election result, it would be in a position to choose a chief minister for the state. Bnd based on its campaign over the past month, that choice is likely to be the current Maharashtra party president Devendra Fadnavis. Other state BJP leaders like opposition leader Vinod Tawde, Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde have also been touted as potential chief ministerial choices for the party, but Fadnavis is perhaps the more popular candidate.
Who is Fadnavis?
A lawyer from Nagpur University and a post-graduate in business management, Devendra Fadnavis is regarded as a well-read, highly-educated leader in the state BJP ranks. He also holds a diploma in project management from the DSE Foundation in Berlin, Germany.
Hailing from a Brahmin family in Nagpur, politics was not alien to Fadnavis – his father had once served as a member of the legislative council. Fadnavis’s own political career began at the age of 21, when he became the youngest municipal corporator of the Nagpur city civic body in 1992.
At that time, Fadnavis had already worked as an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and was also the Nagpur city president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was elected to the Nagpur municipal corporation for two terms in a row, and when he was made the mayor of Nagpur in 1997, he set the record of being the second-youngest mayor in India at the age of 27.
Since 1999, he has also been a legislator in the Maharashtra state assembly from the Nagpur seat for three consecutive terms. Now, at the age of 44, Fadnavis has served as the general secretary of BJP Maharashtra and was made the state party president last year.
Young and clean
Besides the political milestones that he has accomplished at a relatively young age, Fadnavis is recognised within political circles for his speeches and his understanding of economics. Among the two Marathi books he has written, one is titled How to Understand and Read the State Budget, while the other is an explanatory booklet on budgetary concepts.
To underline is own efficiency as a politician, Fadnavis has also branded himself as a “chief political officer” on his website, on the lines of a corporate chief executive officer.
“He is educated, well-read and gives clearly articulated speeches in the assembly,” said Surendra Jhondale, a political commentator based in Mumbai.
The fact that he has a clean image and is not overtly associated with any corruption controversies weighs in his favour.
One of the biggest advantages Fadnavis enjoys, however, is that he comes from Nagpur, the centre of the movement for a separate statehood for the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra. If Fadnavis is made chief minister, the residents of Nagpur – and the rest of Vidarbha – would not feel as neglected under the Maharashtra government as they have been feeling for several years.
Nagpur is also the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and Fadnavis has been closely associated with it. “Nitin Gadkari is also from Nagpur and close to the RSS,” said Jhondale. “But Fadnavis is young and has a clean image.”
