Devendra Fadnavis’ political journey: From grassroots to third-time CM

Became a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and a volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha, actively participating in various social and political activities.

In 1990, while working as the local office bearer and publicity head of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Nagpur West assembly constituency, Devendra Fadnavis started getting involved in understanding the problems of the citizens of the constituency and solving them. He was also seen providing information about various government schemes to the citizens. During this time, he came into direct contact with many leaders through his active engagement in social work, which he took up to strengthen the party’s base among common people.

In 1992, Devendra Fadnavis was elected president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Nagpur city. As president, he would always motivate the youth to actively engage in the party’s programs, involving nationalistic activities, social work, agitation for good governance, and the like. He would also work passionately to bring more youth into politics by organizing various social and cultural programs in Nagpur city.

In 1994, Devendra Fadnavis was appointed as the Maharashtra State Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. In this role, he toured all across the state, interacting directly with young people to strengthen the Yuva Morcha network. He fulfilled this responsibility at the state level very effectively.

Devendra Fadnavis became the mayor of Nagpur Municipal Corporation. At 27, he became the second-youngest mayor in India. He served as the mayor of Nagpur for two consecutive terms, from 5 March 1997 to 6 February 1998 and from 7 February 1998 to 4 February 1999. As Mayor, Devendra Fadnavis took important decisions to resolve vital problems. For example, he started the Pench Water Supply project to ensure the municipal water supply in Nagpur and make the city tanker-free. At the same time, he made changes to the city’s octroi system to reduce the tax burden on the traders and consumers. While he took steps to raise funds for the development of Nagpur city, he took a bold decision to charge the defaulter property owners double the amount of taxes pending against their properties. As a result, a revenue of Rs 35 crore was collected by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation during his tenure. While working as the mayor of Nagpur, Devendraji was also elected as the chairman of the Maharashtra Mayors’ Committee.

Devendraji became an MLA for the first time in 1999. He took oath as an MLA on 21st October, 1999, in the Legislative Assembly, representing the Nagpur West constituency. In his first election contest for the Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis got 94,853 votes and won by 9,087 votes. The percentage of votes he got was 48.66%. The total number of voters in his constituency was 399,195, of which 198,843 voters exercised their right to vote. A total of 11 candidates were in the fray from the Nagpur West constituency in 1999.

Devendra Fadnavis had strongly expressed his views on the condition of slums and the ownership strips for slum dwellers while participating in the discussion on supplementary demands of the Housing and Special Assistance Department in the 1999-2000 budget on 20 December 1999. While demanding protection of slums in the state created before 1999 and the handing over of the ownership strips to slum dwellers, he discussed the slums of Nagpur, Pune, and other districts except Mumbai.

In 2003, Devendra Fadnavis was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by the Maharashtra branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Board. He received this honor for his effective participation in the Legislative Assembly, scholarly opinions and effective presentation of issues of public interest. This is considered an important milestone in his political career. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Board was first established in England in 1911 under the name ‘Empire Parliamentary Association.’ Initially, the members of this board were Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The name of this board was changed to ‘Commonwealth Parliamentary Board’ in 1948. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Board comprises more than 17,000 members of parliament and legislature from a total of 54 countries. This board helps in the exchange of information on parliamentary working systems of its member countries.

In 2009, the Election Commission reorganized the constituencies. As a result, Devendra Fadnavis had to relinquish his Nagpur West seat. So, he contested from the Nagpur-South West constituency, and the result was no different! Even the new constituency elected him by a margin of 27,775 votes. The election was held on October 13, 2009, and the results were announced on October 22, 2009. There were 15 candidates in this constituency with 350,671 voters, of whom 174,649 persons had voted. Devendra Fadnavis received 89,258 votes, defeating the opposition candidate by 27,775 votes. This victory was a testament to his effective strategy, leadership, and increasing popularity. This election marked a new political direction in the Nagpur South West constituency opening new avenues for development.

On April 11, 2013, the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party selected Devendra Fadnavis as the state president for Maharashtra, declaring that the upcoming assembly elections in the state would be contested under his leadership. Having given the principal responsibility for the 2014 assembly election, the new Maharashtra BJP president, Devendra Fadnavis, went about forging unity among the opposition parties against the Congress-NCP alliance, which was in power at that time. Waging attacks on the ruling parties, he exposed a big scam in the water resources department, producing some 14000 pages of proof against the massive financial irregularities in several irrigation projects. He also published a black paper on the irrigation scam and brought out many details. Besides organizing street protests, Fadnavis kept the government under pressure with his fiery speeches in the Legislative Assembly on several issues. Establishing the Bharatiya Janata Party as a formidable opponent, he moved ahead to challenge the ruling parties in the 2014 election.

Legislative committees play a crucial role in the functioning of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, as well as in the effective implementation of various schemes of the government. Legislative committees are an important part of parliamentary democracy. They are given special powers to carry out focused and in-depth examinations of the proposed legislation, government policies, and budgetary allocations decided in the legislative assembly. Devendra Fadnavis worked effectively on important issues in the state by working in several legislative committees such as Estimate Committee, Rules Committee, Public Undertaking Committee, Request Application Committee, Standing Committee on Urban Development and Housing, Joint Select Committee on Reserve Funds, Joint Select Committee on Self Finance Schools, and Joint Select Committee on Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran. He was also chosen as the convener of a high-powered committee of chief ministers constituted for the transformation of Indian agriculture.

During 2010-11, Devendraji had secured land titles for the people of Kamgar Colony in Mouja Parsodi and Sant Tukdoji Nagar in Nagpur city through the Assembly Request Application Committee.

Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the 18th Chief Minister of the state on 31 October 2014 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and led the state as the Chief Minister for 5 years and 12 days from 31 October 2014 to 12 November 2019. He became the second Chief Minister in Maharashtra to complete a 5-year term, after Vasantrao Naik, who served as the Chief Minister for 11 years and 58 days. Incidentally, both these leaders are from Vidarbha.

After the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Assembly elections were announced in the state on 15 October 2014. As all the political parties in the state decided to contest the elections independently, signs of a four-way fight were seen in all the constituencies. After their crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party decided to break their alliance and face the Assembly elections separately. Similarly, due to the seat-sharing dispute between the BJP and Shiv Sena, both these parties also broke their 25-year alliance and contested the elections independently. Meanwhile, in 2013, Devendra Fadnavis was made the state president of the BJP with the responsibility of the 2014 election.  Under his leadership, the BJP won 122 seats in Maharashtra for the first time. Devendra Fadnavis’s dynamism and clean image became his strength. He has never been accused of corruption. No party got the absolute majority in this election, but the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged the highest number of seats, 122 seats, to become the number one party. In the 2009 election, the BJP had won only 46 seats. In 2014, its seat share increased by 76 seats.

Water scarcity, severe in places, had been the number 1 problem in Maharashtra for ages, crippling the agriculture and the rural economy. After taking the oath, the Fadnavis government set its priority on sustainable water management and irrigation by launching the ‘Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan’ program on 5 December 2014, with the slogan ‘Water for All—Scarcity-Free Maharashtra 2019.’ The program aimed to make the state water-empowered and drought-free by 2019 through water conservation and other measures.

On 31 October 2014, when Devendra Fadnavis took charge of Maharashtra as the 18th Chief Minister, the state had been reeling under drought from the preceding years. The new chief minister was prompt in his action. A cabinet subcommittee was formed under the chairmanship of the Relief and Rehabilitation Minister within 15 days to review the drought situation and seek assistance from the center as an immediate measure. Meanwhile, to find a permanent solution to the drought situation in the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis studied the existing irrigation and water conservation systems in the state. After studying about 28 schemes like the Ralegan pattern, the Shirpur pattern, and the Hiwarebazar pattern, etc., it was decided to launch a new program called ‘Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan,’ which will be a government-people initiative to eliminate drought, implementing appropriate irrigation patterns wherever suitable.

Political leaders are rarely known for keeping their promises, but Devendra Fadnavis is an exception. In the first cabinet meeting of his government, held on 1 November 2014, it was decided to enact a law to implement the Service Guarantee Act. Accordingly, the Fadnavis government got the bill passed through both houses in the budget session of 2015, making way for the Maharashtra Public Service Right Act 2015, coming into force from 28 April 2015. The Service Guarantee Act was on the wish list of Fadnavis since 2011, when he, as an opposition MLA, introduced a non-government bill named ‘Maharashtra State Service Guarantee Bill’ in the Legislative Assembly to ensure ‘service right’ and ‘service guarantee’ for the citizens. Although discussed in the Legislative Assembly in 2013, the bill was wrapped up by the then government. But when Devendraji formed his government in 2014, one of the first few decisions he took was the enactment of the Maharashtra Right to Public Service Act 2015.

The marquee infrastructure project of Devendra Fadnavis, the Nagpur-Mumbai super expressway, was announced in the Legislative Assembly on 31 July 2015, within a year of taking oath as the Chief Minister on 31 October 2014. The idea of a highway from Nagpur to Mumbai, bringing development to the vast regions that fall in between, was nurtured by Fadnavis for 20 years. After becoming the CM, Fadnavis took a bold decision to implement this project, laden with many hurdles. The official announcement for the project was made in the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 2015.

Keeping in mind the acute shortage of water for domestic and industrial uses in Marathwada due to severe drought, the Fadnavis government announced the Marathwada Water Grid project in 2016. The project was designed to cover a total area of ​​64,590 sq km in Marathwada, benefitting 79 cities, 76 talukas, and 12,978 villages. The water will be sourced from a network of 11 dams in the Marathwada region and will be supplied through a network of pipelines 1330 km in length. The dams include Jayakwadi (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Yeldari (Parbhani), Siddheshwar (Hingoli), Majalgaon (Beed), Manjara (Beed), Urdhva Painganga (Yavatmal), Nimna Terna (Dharashiv), Nimna Manyar (Nanded), Vishnupuri (Nanded), Nimna Dudhana (Parbhani), and Sina Kolegaon (Dharashiv) dams. Also, the dams will be recharged with the excess floodwater from the rivers in western Maharashtra through a river-linking project.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took an important decision to provide 1% parallel reservation to orphans in the open category in the state through a cabinet meeting on 17 January 2018. Orphans face immense difficulties pursuing higher studies and careers after their period in the orphanages is over. Especially since their identity proofs (parents names, religion, etc.) are not known, they can’t get into colleges and hostels to qualify for jobs. For this, Devendra Fadnavis’ government provided a 1% parallel reservation to the orphan candidates for education, accommodation, and jobs in government or government-supported institutions.

The bill brought by the Fadnavis government for 16% reservation for the Maratha community people who are socially and economically backward was unanimously passed in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council on November 29, 2018. The bill was signed into law by the Governor on November 30, and came into effect from December 1, 2018.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took out a Mahajanadesh Yatra in Maharashtra from 1 to 31 August 2019 with the aim of informing the people about the development works done between 2014 and 2019. This yatra was taken out in two phases. The first phase of the Mahajanadesh Yatra, a journey of 1639 km, covering 57 assembly constituencies in 14 districts, was started on 1 August from Mozar in Amravati and concluded in Nandurbar on 9 August, while the second phase, covering 2745 km through 93 constituencies in 18 districts, started on 17 August and ended on 31 August in Nashik. In this massive rally across the length and breadth of the state, Devendra Fadnavis took part in 87 large meetings and 57 welcome meetings/ceremonies in 238 villages. The Mahajanadesh Yatra covered 1232 km in 44 constituencies of Vidarbha, 622 km in 34 constituencies of North Maharashtra, 1069 km in 28 constituencies of Marathwada, 812 km in 29 constituencies of West Maharashtra and 638 km in 15 constituencies of Konkan. The purpose of the Mahajanadesh Yatra was to build connection and communicate the performance of the Fadnavis government in the last 5 years, to the common voters.

The first term of Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister, which began on October 31, 2014, and ended on November 12, 2019, spanned 5 years and 12 days. He became the second Maharashtra Chief Minister to complete 5 years after only Vasantrao Naik, who had served for two consecutive terms (11 years and 78 days).

After the 2019 Assembly elections, Shiv Sena formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government on 28 November 2019 making an alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. It left the BJP, despite having 105 MLAs of its own, to sit in the opposition with Devendra Fadnavis as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Fadnavis held the post of Leader of Opposition for 2 years and 210 days from 1 December 2019 to 29 June 2022, when the ruling MVA government fell apart. As LOP Fadnavis made the Maha Vikas Aghadi government jittery, with charges of corruption, wrong policies, sluggish responses to calamities, and more.

The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party appointed Devendra Fadnavis as the BJP’s election in-charge for the Goa assembly election on 8 September 2021. Taking charge of Goa election, he studied the political situation in Goa in depth and launched an invigorated campaign in coordination with the local leadership. Devendra Fadnavis toured various districts of Goa to unite the grassroots workers, resolve differences between local leaders, and strengthen communication with the electorates. With his hard work and strategy, BJP succeeded in retaining power in Goa. Of the 40 assembly seats in Goa, the BJP won 20 seats to retain power in Goa. Fadnavis’s election winning skills were once again in the headlines.

The portfolio allocation in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government was done on August 14, 2022. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assumed the responsibilities of multiple ministries, namely Home, Finance and Planning, Law and Justice, Water Resources and Benefit Area Development, Housing, Energy, and Protocol. Taking the responsibility of the finance department for the first time, Devendraji handled it maturely, contributing to revenue growth and providing budgetary allocations for many crucial projects. He continued as the Finance Minister until 14 July 2023.

Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Samruddhi Mahamarg, between Nagpur and Shirdi, on 11 December 2022. This game-changing highway project, a brainchild of Fadnavis, was announced in 2015 during his first term as the Chief Minister. The construction of Samruddhi Mahamarg, one of the longest expressways in India connecting 10 districts, 26 talukas, and nearly 400 villages, was estimated to be nearly Rs 55 thousand crores.

On March 9, 2023, Devendra Fadnavis presented his first budget as the Finance Minister of the state for the financial year 2023-24. It was very challenging because not only was this his first budget, but it also happened to be the first Amrit Kaal budget of the state. So this budget from the Finance Minister Fadnavis emphasized five ‘Amrits’ as its focused areas, namely sustainable agriculture, inclusive development of all sections of the society, building infrastructure to invite more investments, employment generation, and environment-friendly development. His tenure as Finance Minister is marked by a slew of new schemes, such as the Namo Shetkari Maha Samman Nidhi Yojana, one-rupee crop insurance, river-linking projects, the Marathwada Water Grid Project, the Lek Ladki Yojana, a 50 percent discount on ST tickets for women, and more.

On March 11, 2024 (the memorial day of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj), the first phase of Coastal Road from Marine Drive to Worli was inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. The second phase of the coastal road will be constructed through Worli, Bandra, Versova, Kandivali, and further up to Virar.

During the Lok Sabha elections, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government raised the false issue of changing the constitution. Due to this, a false narrative was developed that the existing reservation quota would be revoked by the Modi government. This resulted in the polarization of the Dalit-Tribal voters and created a debacle for the BJP’s election results. But in the Assembly elections, Devendra Fadnavis destroyed the false propaganda of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He went to the people and convinced them that there would be no change in the existing reservation until the discrimination against the weaker sections is stopped. At the same time, he gained the trust of the voters by informing them about the work done in the last two and a half years and the development done in Maharashtra when he was the chief minister. His all-out efforts delivered the biggest victory of the party under Devendraji’s leadership with 132 seats for the BJP.

The entire axis of the 2024 Assembly elections was on Devendra Fadnavis. He personally won a big victory from the Nagpur South West constituency by getting 129,401 votes, with a victory margin of 39,710 votes and a vote share of 56.88%. BJP contested 152 seats in the state and won 132 seats, with a strike rate of about 87%. As the star campaigner and the foremost leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he campaigned across the state for the 2024 assembly elections., holding rallies, road shows, and public meetings in 64 places.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the heads of 6 Indian states visited Davos to promote their states for foreign investments. In this, Maharashtra signed the highest amount of MoUs, worth Rs 15.70 lakh crore. It is said that around 16 lakh jobs will be created from it. A total of 61 types of agreements were signed with Maharashtra on the sidelines of this economic summit. Of them, 54 agreements were for investment and 7 agreements were in the strategic category. The strategic agreements are specifically for knowledge sharing and guidance for various project developments in Maharashtra. No direct investment will be made from this. Of the 54 investment agreements that have been signed, about 98 percent of them are FDIs in sectors such as steel, IT, green energy, and infrastructure, and they will set up industries in different parts of the state. Going by the area-wise allocation, 6 to 7 lakh crores will be invested in the MMRDA area, 5 lakh crores in Vidarbha, 30 to 35 thousand crores in North Maharashtra and Nashik, and 25 to 30 thousand crores in the Marathwada region. With this historic feat, Maharashtra became the highest recipient of investments from Davos compared to other Indian states. Entrepreneurial CM Fadnavis is always focused on winning investments for Maharashtra. Investments bring revenue and competitiveness and boost economy of the state.

Following the cabinet formation, the third time Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a 100-day action program to begin the journey of his new government. Through this program, he set objectives for each department for the first 100 days. At the same time, a 7-point action program was drawn up for each department to improve governance and citizens’ ease of living. All ministries, municipal commissioners, police commissioners, superintendents of police, district collectors, police inspectorates, district councils, divisional commissioners, and all administrative agencies were made mandatory to implement this program. In this, the Women and Child Development Department secured the title of the best department by scoring 80%, while the Chandrapur District Collectorate (84.29%), the office of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Commissioner (86.29%), the Thane Zilla Parishad (92%), and the Mira-Bhayander Police Commissioner (84.57%) performed best in their respective categories. Maintaining his poll promises, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis started his new innings through reform and discipline in the administrative work processes to ensure a people-oriented, proactive, and accountable government.