In 2019, he famously said: “Me Punha Yein” (I’ll be back). In 2024, he’s maintaining a diplomatic silence even as everyone’s wondering: “Toh Punha Yeil ka?” (Will he be back?).
Simple math should yield a resounding yes. BJP’s numbers are more than double of Shiv Sena’s. Logically it’s a no contest. But politics is not about hard numbers alone and with Shinde camp dropping enough hints that status quo should prevail it’s to be seen whether the man from Nagpur will head to Mantralaya as CM or not.
Fadnavis played a stellar role in leading the tripartite alliance to victory. While everyone focused on the bold numbers of LS polls of barely six months ago, he zeroed in on the granular details. Mahayuti’s vote share was a mere one per cent lower than MVA’s. If only two lakh more voters had voted for them, the picture would have been very different.
It is precisely with this emphasis on smart poll management that Fadnavis, with a quiet resolve, went about planning the BJP’s election campaign and at the same time performing his role as Dy CM. Finally, he has returned, with a big bang – the BJP has posted its highest seat tally ever in Maharashtra with 132 seats.
Fadnavis has, indeed, a point or two to prove. In 2019, the then CM Fadnavis had been BJP’s face for the state election campaign. He had even led the party’s Mahajanadesh yatra and made the famous ‘Me Punha Yein’ statement. It turned out to be quite a millstone around his neck, and he has been hoping for five years that he’d be able to cast it away.
He helped BJP leadership engineer splits in the Shiv Sena and later in NCP and took it on the chin when he was appointed deputy to Eknath Shinde. His initial reluctance to be Shinde’s deputy was very visible. But like a loyal party worker he fell in line swallowing his ego and pride. All he did after that perceived diminishing of stature was to get back to work so that he could bounce back. He must be now hoping that the BJP top brass take cognizance of both his ‘sacrifice’ and subjucation of his claims to the chief ministership in the interests of the party and reward him with the top job five years around. His mother was quite vocal about her son’s credentials for the job post results.
During the Maratha quota agitation, he was personally and consistently targeted by quota activist Manoj Jarange over his ‘Brahmin’ credentials. Though the LS poll debacle was a serious setback he led an aggressive assembly campaign, describing the state election as a ‘dharmayuddh.’
This combination of silent, steady work with strong pronouncements has brought him back into the reckoning for the CM’s post, again. It is now up to the BJP supremos to decide whether to reward their tallest leader with the top job or, again, sacrifice Fadnavis for Shinde for the greater good of BJP in the longer term.