- By Aalok Sensharma
- Fri, 11 Mar 2022 02:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Panaji/ Mumbai | Jagran Politics Desk: The Bharatiya Janata Party's spectacular show in Goa might have paved the wave of Devendra Fadnavis to rise as a national leader in India. Fadnavis, who served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019, was made BJP's Goa in charge of the 2022 assembly elections. This was the second such responsibility Fadnavis got at the national level after the Bihar assembly elections 2020.
Quoting a senior BJP leader, Hindustan Times has reported that the BJP high command is impressed with how Fadnavis led the party in Goa, helping it defy the anti-incumbency factor and return to power for a third straight. The BJP leader said the party's internal survey showed it might get around 15 seats, but it won 20 and got the support from three independents, which he noted was the "outcome of Fadnavis' strategy".
"The win in Goa is significant as the party unit there was facing many a challenge. It was facing an anti-incumbency wave after having ruled for 10 years and the criticism of poor handling of the second wave of COVID-19 last year. This was the first election the party fought after the demise of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar," Hindustan Times quoted the BJP leader as saying.
"The revolt by his son Utpal had become an issue. Handling of over 30 leaders who had come from other parties and the infighting because of the sheer number of aspirants for party tickets was a herculean task. But he did not remain behind the curtain and played a key role in micro-level planning," the leader said.
Fadnavis' rise is crucial for the BJP's future. The 51-year-old had started his political career in the mid-1990s. In 1999, he was elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from Nagpur and has been representing the constituency since then.
By 2009, Fadnavis had shown ample ability that allowed him to become the face of the BJP president in 2013 and then the face of the party in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections. "He did not show any personal ambition but worked taking both the Munde and the Gadkari factions along. He never once spoke about his aspirations to be the CM or anything else," political commentator Hemant Desai told The Print.
"Situationally, Munde’s death in 2014 and Modi's rise also hastened Fadnavis’ surge in the party... He would have not become CM had Munde been alive or if leaders such as Lal Krishna Advani were still at the helm," Desai noted.
During his tenure as Chief Minister, Fadnavis continued to build the BJP at the ground level. He also became Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "favourite" due to his image of being an administrator cut.
However, Fadnavis, the only Chief Minister of Maharashtra after Vasantrao Naik to complete a full tenure of five years, had reportedly made some enemies inside the BJP due to his working style, but despite that, the BJP, along with the Shiv Sena, won Maharashtra assembly elections 2019 comprehensively.
Fadnavis, however, didn't get a second term after the Shiv Sena parted its ways with the BJP amid differences over the Chief Ministerial position. But, the top BJP brass decided to give Fadnavis opportunity at the national level - first in Bihar and then in Goa - which gives a hint that the party is ready to give him more crucial role at the top.
