Devendra Fadnavis emerges as Mah’s man of the moment

 

By Nikhil Deshmukh

 

MUMBAI, Nov 23 (PTI) FROM an obscure corporator to becoming the youngest mayor of Nagpur, to the first BJP Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis’ climb up the political ladder has been steady, as he looks all set to occupy the State’s top post for the third time. In a State dominated by Maratha politics and politicians, the 54-year-old leader, with deep roots in RSS, is only the second Brahmin after BJP’s estranged ally Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi to become the State’s

 

Chief Minister. Ahead of the 2014 Assembly polls, the soft spoken and portly leader was a clear favourite for the coveted post, largely due to the confidence he enjoyed of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. “Devendra is Nagpur’s gift to the country,” Modi had said of him at an election rally. Though Modi had launched a campaign blitzkrieg in the 2014 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra

 

Assembly polls, a portion of the credit also went to Fadnavis, then State BJP president, for the party’s unprecedented victories in the elections. Son of Jan Sangh and later BJP leader late Gangadhar Fadnavis, whom his fellow Nagpur politician and former party chief Nitin Gadkari calls his “political guru”, Devendra cut his teeth in politics at a young age when he joined Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students wing of RSS, in 1989. At 22, he became a corporator in the Nagpur civic body and its youngest Mayor in 1997 at the age of 27. Fadnavis contested his first assembly election in 1999 and won. There was no looking back for him as he won three subsequent Assembly elections. He currently represents Nagpur South West seat in the House. Unlike many leaders across the political spectrum in Maharashtra, Fadnavis has remained untainted by accusations of corruption.