Maharashtra’s Relentless Power Broker

Devendra Fadnavis’ return to the centre of power shows how modern Indian politics rewards those who learn how to lose.

Love him or loathe him, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has become impossible to ignore. In a state where political reputations are usually inherited or quietly managed by shadowy fixers, Fadnavis has successfully made himself the story. For more than a decade now, every tremor in Maharashtra’s politics, every revolt, realignment or rumour has seemed to revolve around his presence.

This marks a striking point of departure as for decades, the state’s politics had been narrated through a single prism: Sharad Pawar. Whether governments fell, alliances formed or rebellions fizzled out, the assumption was that ‘Pawar Saheb’ (as he is respectfully known) was the invisible hand behind any upheaval. Even those who disliked him conceded his reach. The state was less a political arena than a chessboard on which only one player truly mattered.

New Narrative

But Fadnavis’ arrival as Chief Minister in 2014 punctured that narrative. He did not fit the stereotype of a Maharashtra strongman. He was young, unshowy, soft-spoken and widely regarded as a technocrat. Many in Mumbai’s political salons assumed he would be a placeholder, a ‘polite’ face for a government ultimately run from Delhi. They were soon to be proven wrong.

Between 2014 and 2019, he governed with a confidence that surprised both admirers and critics. Infrastructure projects moved at a pace Maharashtra had not seen in years; bureaucratic bottlenecks were cleared; and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), once a marginal force in large parts of the state, built a formidable organisation. Fadnavis combined a command of files with an instinct for the street. Party workers began calling him ‘Deva Bhau,’ a term that conveyed both affection and authority. He was not merely the BJP’s man in Mumbai; he was becoming Maharashtra’s own.

However, in 2019, after a bruising election, Fadnavis lost the Chief Minister’s chair to Uddhav Thackeray, who stitched together an improbable alliance with Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. For the first time since 2014, Fadnavis was on the outside. Many in the state’s political class, and not a few within his own party, concluded that his moment had passed.

They were to be proven wrong once again. The two and a half years that Fadnavis spent as Leader of the Opposition (LoP) were a political apprenticeship in adversity. He travelled relentlessly, kept BJP cadres energised and used the Assembly floor to harry a government that was often more united by its dislike of him than by any shared programme. He learned how to fight without the levers of power and, crucially, to be patient.

When the Thackeray-led MVA coalition eventually unravelled, Fadnavis returned not as a chastened survivor but as a sharper, more seasoned operator. He had discovered that in India’s increasingly transactional politics, patience can be as potent as patronage.

That education is now on display as Maharashtra heads into a crucial round of municipal-corporation elections. These contests, far from being parochial, are in the machinery rooms of Indian politics. Control of the cities translates into control of contracts, of cadres and cash. Accordingly, Fadnavis he is criss-crossing the state, holding rallies, chairing strategy meetings and micromanaging candidate lists. In some places he campaigns alongside uneasy allies; in others he faces them across the barricades.

Unperturbed Player

What is striking is how little he seems distracted by the noise. Speculation about a reunion of the Thackeray brothers - an idea that has set television studios ablaze – has barely registered in his public utterances. His speeches are dry, even technocratic, dealing with poll nitty-gritties like roads, water supply, sanitation and good governance. He talks less about ideology than about drains. It is a curious strategy in a political culture addicted to theatrics, but it plays to his strengths as Fadnavis has always preferred competence to charisma.

Not everyone in the BJP is pleased. There is a quiet, persistent murmur from a small faction that would like to see him stumble, especially in these municipal battles. But Fadnavis’ grip on the party organisation, his rapport with the BJP’s central leadership and his standing among the rank and file make him a difficult man to undercut. More importantly, he looks unruffled. That, in politics, is often the most unnerving signal of all.

While to dub him the ‘king’ of Maharashtra politics would perhaps be a stretch, yet he has achieved something almost as formidable: he has made himself indispensable to every conversation about power. He understands that modern politics is not just about winning elections but about managing narratives, cultivating networks and, above all, timing one’s moves. He knows when to speak and when to fall silent, when to strike and when to let others overreach.

Maharashtra is entering another volatile phase, with alliances fraying and old families reasserting themselves. Yet through the churn, Fadnavis remains fixed at the centre. Whether voters reward him this time will depend on factors beyond his control. But one thing is already clear. In a state long accustomed to being run from the shadows, Devendra Fadnavis has dragged politics into the open and made himself its most compelling protagonist.

(The writer is a political observer. Views personal.)