Once again, on a day when things didn’t go well for the BJP, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has emerged as a ray of hope for the party. Fadnavis has clearly taken Maharashtra by storm. Running a coalition government, he has reduced his coalition partner to a fringe element and established the BJP as the go-to party in the state. The BJP won Maharashtra’s Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha seat. BJP’s Rajendra Gavit, secured 2,72,780 votes while Shiv Sena’s Shrinivas Wanaga got 2,43,206 votes. Earlier also, BJP didn’t just defeat the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra assembly elections, under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis, but almost snatched BMC from them and have won most Municipal and Panchayat polls since 2014. The way he has handled a hostile ally, continuing to run the government and at the same time showing them their place, is brilliant politicking. From every municipal election to every by-election, the BJP which until 2014 was the junior partner in an alliance has emerged victorious. Shiv Sena failed to fulfill the desires of the voters so they switched to BJP and voted in large numbers in every local election.
Fadnavis’ administrative and developmental track record has matched his political acumen. BJP has seen ups and downs in most states since 2014, but under Fadnavis, Maharashtra has been firmly with the party. He is doing infrastructure works at phenomenal speed be it Nagpur Metro, Pune Metro, Nagpur-Mumbai Super Expressway (Samruddhi Mahamarg). He has brought lots of foreign investment into Maharashtra. He earned laurels for small scale water conservation project- Jal Yukta Shivar. He handled agriculture sector very well despite two years of back to back droughts in 2015 and 2016. Maharashtra aims to be a drought-free state by 2019. He is trying his level best to solve the farmer issues. His government allowed farmers to sell their products in open market directly without getting involved into Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) which had increased farmers income. In one of the most rightful and deserving reservation, Maharashtra government approved 1 % quota to orphans in government jobs and educational institutions.
He is a no-nonsense Chief Minister. Even his critics agree that he is humble, honest, polite, non-controversial, always smiling, soft-spoken and down to earth person. There are talks about how the BJP is in trouble in several states, but in Maharashtra, there is no doubt that Fadnavis is handling things brilliantly. The way he handled Anna Hazare’s agitation is commendable. He has proved himself a mass leader. Devendra Fadnavis holds the fort for BJP in Maharashtra.
Although the Bhandara-Gondiya seat has been neck and neck, the BJP has won the Palghar seat comfortably. In Bhandara-Gondiya, NCP’s Madhukar Kukde defeated BJP candidate by small number of votes. Kukde secured 2,08,883 votes, whereas BJP’s Hemant Patle polled 1,88,300 votes.
