By PTI
MUMBAI: Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday became a fourth Maharashtra politician who accepted a junior position in a government after having served as chief minister.
Fadnavis, earlier in the day, made a stunning announcement that rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde would be sworn in as the new chief minister following the collapse of the Uddhav Thackery government, and he himself would not be part of the ministry.
But later BJP chief J P Nadda said Fadnavis would be part of the government and eventually Fadnavis took oath as Shinde’s deputy.
Fadnavis was chief minister for full five years from 2014 to 2019.
After the 2019 Assembly elections, as the Sena fell out with the BJP, Fadnavis became chief minister again with the support of a group of NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar, but had to resign within three days as they could not muster the numbers.
A former chief minister accepting a junior post in a subsequent government is rare, but Maharashtra has witnessed such situation in the past.
Congress leader Shankarrao Chavan became chief minister in 1975 and served for two years, before being replaced by Vasantdada Patil.
In 1978, Sharad Pawar, a minister in Patil cabinet, brought down the government and became chief minister.
Chavan became finance minister in the Progressive Democratic Front government led by Pawar.
Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar was the chief minister of Maharashtra from June 1985 to March 1986.
Years later, he became revenue minister in the Sushilkumar Shinde government in 2004.
Narayan Rane, then with the Shiv Sena, became Maharashtra Chief Minister in 1999 and served for less than a year.
Later, after he had left the Sena to join the Congress, he became revenue minister in the Vilasrao Deshmukh-led government.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Fadnavis has set an example when it comes to obeying the party’s directive.
Fadnavis’ Mi punha yein (I will come back) remark during the 2019 Assembly election campaign was mocked at by political rivals in the last two and a half years.
Fadnavis, who was the first non-Congress leader to complete the five-year term as CM between 2014-19 and also had the shortest tenure of three days as CM in 2019 was all set to return to the top post again, when he declared that Shinde will be the CM instead.
The BJP leader, who will celebrate his 52nd birthday on July 22, has established his credentials as an astute politician, who has hold over the party and state machinery.
He led BJP to major wins in the recent Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections in Maharashtra.
He also delivered for the BJP at the national level, in Bihar and Goa Assembly polls where he was the party observer.
He was also the election in charge for the Kerala Assembly polls.
Hailing from a middle-class family in Nagpur, Fadnavis has a degree in law, a postgraduate degree in business management and also a diploma in project management.
His political career began in 1992 when he was elected corporator in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation.
He was Nagpur’s second-youngest mayor, a post he held twice.
He has been MLA from Nagpur southwest constituency for five consecutive terms.
Under his leadership, Maharashtra BJP grew at the grassroots level, winning rural and urban local bodies.
As an MLA, his spirited debates and understanding of fiscal issues were appreciated across party lines.
His three-day government with NCP’s Ajit Pawar in November 2019 was the shortest regime in Maharashtra’s history.
The mandate of 2019 Assembly polls was for the BJP-Sena alliance but Fadnavis disclosed at a post-results press conference that the Sena was not promised chief minister’s post on rotation basis as claimed by it.
This enraged Thackeray who called off the alliance and joined hands with Congress and NCP to form the government.
