Fadnavis is winner, but Ajit Pawar is Man of the Match

Victory after a rough patch

Although fate has smiled on Fadnavis this time, he was not so lucky earlier. The change in fortune for Fadnavis took place in the last five months of the Maharashtra government when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced several populist schemes following a massive setback in the Lok Sabha polls.

During the Assembly polls in 2019, Fadnavis made a promise to the people of returning to power as chief minister, but the alliance with Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena fell apart and the BJP could not form government.

Also read: Devendra Fadnavis: Nagpur Mayor to three-time Maharashtra CM

The Assembly election has not only cemented Fadnavis’ position as the senior-most leader of the BJP in the state, but also ended the debate on the role of Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) within the NDA, owing to its poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

‘BJP no more a political pariah’

“The resounding success of BJP and NDA in Maharashtra has ended the caste politics that muddled the Maharashtra politics for the past few years. With the kind of mandate received by BJP under Devendra Fadnavis, we can say that BJP and NDA have received votes from every section of people in Maharashtra. For the past few years, there was an attempt to create a situation in Maharashtra where BJP and the Sangh Parivar were to be treated as political pariah, but the people have spoken and they have given a mammoth mandate to the BJP-led NDA,” Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, senior leader of BJP and chief of the party’s manifesto committee in Maharashtra, told The Federal.

Turning setbacks into success

Fadnavis faced his first political setback in 2019 when he could not become the chief minister for the second consecutive term after Thackeray refused to join hands with the BJP to form government. While the BJP returned to power three years later with the support of the factions of Shiv Sena and NCP, the seat of chief minister remained elusive for Fadnavis as he was asked by the party’s central leadership to become deputy chief minister under Eknath Shinde who was promoted as the chief minister of the NDA government in Maharashtra.

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However, the mammoth mandate received by the NDA, especially BJP, in the Maharashtra polls propelled Fadnavis as the obvious choice for the post of chief minister. During the General Elections, held earlier this year, the NDA could only win 17 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and suffered a setback because of the ire of farmers.

Course correction measures

Soon after the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-NDA combine started a course correction move by first announcing the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana that offers direct cash transfer to the bank accounts of 2.5 lakh women in the state and later free power to farmers to run water pumps to irrigate their fields. Realising that without the support of farmers, it would be difficult to retain power in Maharashtra, the NDA government announced the Chief Minister Baliraja Free Power Scheme in October this year and transferred Rs 487 crore to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL). The immediate beneficiaries of this scheme were nearly 9.5 lakh farmers of the state.

Also read: How 'Ladli Behna' scheme helped BJP-led Mahayuti retain power in Maharashtra

“If we look at the tenure of BJP-NDA under Fadnavis, improving the agriculture economy was one the priority areas for the state government. The Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan, started by the Fadnavis government, enabled the state government to provide water to 25,000 villages in Maharashtra. The BJP often emphasises on providing better social security for poor, but the need for security is also required by farmers and women. It is for the chief minister to announce the plan of the state government, but improvement of rural and urban infrastructure will be a priority of the new government,” Sahasrabuddhe said.

Image makeover for Ajit Pawar

While the massive mandate for the BJP has changed the political fortunes of Fadnavis, the victory of NDA has also helped Ajit Pawar change his image within the NDA.

Six months ago, when the Lok Sabha results were announced, almost all sections of the BJP and even members of the Sangh Parivar squarely blamed the induction of Ajit Pawar for the NDA’s dismal performance.

Watch: Fadnavis or Shinde? Here's who Ajit Pawar is backing to be Maharashtra CM

Ajit Pawar’s faction of the party could win only one of the four Lok Sabha seats it contested. The BJP won only nine of the 28 seats it contested and the Shinde’s Sena bagged seven of the 15 seats it contested. The Mahayuti alliance in total won only 17 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats against the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s 30.

However, the NDA showed a surprising turnaround in the Assembly polls, winning 235 of the 288 seats. The NCP won 41 of the 58 seats it contested, recording a strike rate of 71 per cent.

“We are aware that there was a lot of criticism after the Lok Sabha results, but the success in Assembly elections is not just because of the work done in the last five months before the polls but also because of the continuous development work done by the state government in the last two-and-a-half-years. The electoral success is because of the work of the state government since 2022 which provided a stable government in Maharashtra,” Nitin Laxmanrao Jadhav Patil, senior leader of NCP and Rajya Sabha parliamentarian told The Federal.

How Ajit Pawar strengthened BJP’s cause

While the outcome of the Assembly polls has helped BJP consolidate its hold over the NDA and the state government, Ajit Pawar’s rock solid support has helped the saffron party neutralise any threat from the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena.

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The decision of Ajit Pawar to back Devendra Fadnavis has not only helped the BJP leader become chief minister but it has also stopped Shiv Sena from putting pressure on the BJP to stake claim for the top post.

“Ajit Pawar is an older member of the NDA. He joined the alliance much before Eknath Shinde became its part. Ajit Pawar was brought in by Fadnavis in 2019 and he took an oath as the deputy chief minister, but the NDA was unable to form government. The support of Ajit Pawar has been consistently with Fadnavis,” Dilip Deodhar, Nagpur-based author and observer on RSS, told The Federal.

Tussle for portfolios continue

The path for government formation finally got cleared after Fadnavis took oath as chief minister and Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as his deputies. But embers of a political tussle seems to be burning as no other minister took oath at the ceremony in Mumbai on Thursday.

Shinde is trying to bargain hard for the post of home minister while Ajit Pawar is keen to retain the portfolio of finance ministry. The BJP, it seems, will need more time to please its alliance partners.

Also read: Sulking Shinde, stubborn BJP: Maharashtra deadlock deepens

“The fact that Fadnavis, Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oath and no other minister was part of the ceremony clearly indicates that there are issues in the alliance. The BJP will try to keep Shinde and Pawar happy but the message is clear that in the days to come, the challenges of BJP will only increase, especially from Shiv Sena,” Amit Dholakia, professor at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.