Maharashtra Assembly polls 2024: Devendra Fadnavis’s battle cry on home pitch, litmus test for Congress
This time, Fadnavis will have to battle it out with Congress’s Praful Gudadhe, whom he had defeated in the 2014 polls
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Fadnavis contested and won his first Assembly election from Nagpur West constituency in 1999. He retained the seat in the 2004 polls. (@Dev_Fadnavis/X)Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis filed his nomination from the Nagpur South West Assembly constituency accompanied by thousands of BJP workers on Friday.
Before stepping out to file his nomination, Fadnavis went to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s residence to seek his blessings.
Fadnavis is a fifth-term MLA who won Assembly polls from Nagpur West twice (1999, 2004) and Nagpur South West thrice (2009, 2014, 2019).
Talking about his candidature, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “Fadnavis always does development-oriented politics, keeping people’s welfare at the centre.”
This time, Fadnavis will have to battle it out with Congress’s Praful Gudadhe at the Nagpur South West constituency. After the setback in the recently held Lok Sabha polls in which the BJP-led Mahayuti won only 17 constituencies against the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) 30 seats in Maharashtra, every constituency in the Vidarbha region is tipped to witness an intense fight between the ruling and the Opposition alliances in the Assembly polls.
During the 2024 parliamentary polls, the Nagpur South West was among the four Assembly segments under the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency where the BJP’s votes declined. The number of votes polled by the BJP in Nagpur South West was 1,13,501 compared to 1,20,185 in 2019. While the Congress candidate’s votes increased to 79,966 from the previous 65,069.
Political pundits attributed this decline to the strong anti-BJP sentiment prevailing among the Dalit and Muslim communities that affected the party’s overall vote share during the Lok Sabha polls.
BJP Nagpur Lok Sabha candidate Union Minister Nitin Gadkari defeated Congress city chief Vikas Thakre with a reduced margin of 1.37 lakh votes in 2024 as against 2.14 lakh in 2019.
Exuding optimism, Congress state chief Nana Patole said, “The people are with the Congress. They are disillusioned with Mahayuti. And it will impact seats in Vidarbha.”
In the 2014 Assembly polls, Fadnavis defeated Gudadhe in Nagpur South West. The 2014 Assembly elections saw a multi-corner contest – with the Shiv Sena, BJP, Congress, and the NCP, all contesting separately. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party winning 122 out of 288 seats. Thereafter, Fadnavis became the chief minister of Maharashtra and completed a full term (2014-2019).
Unlike the 2014 Assembly polls, when the BJP was in the Opposition and used the anti-incumbency factor to its advantage, Fadnavis knows that the 2024 Assembly polls entail greater responsibility and challenges, experts said.
Every constituency is crucial for the party and it has set a target of 100-plus seats for itself. Unfazed by the electoral setbacks in the Lok Sabha polls, Fadnavis has taken upon himself the formidable task to regain the lost ground. With the help of the Nagpur-headquartered Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, poll observers said, the BJP is displaying greater determination in fieldwork.
At successive meetings, Fadnavis’s message to karyakartas was, “We can win, we will win.”
An MVA source admitted, “Nagpur South West is a prestigious seat. Fadnavis is definitely a very strong candidate. Yet, the Congress will give a tough fight to the BJP. The Congress is relying on Dalit, Muslim, and Kunbi votes across the 62 seats in the Vidarbha region. It yielded electoral dividends in the Lok Sabha contest where the Opposition won seven out of 10 seats. In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP bagged 29 out of 62 seats.”
The buzz in the Congress is that Praful Gudadhe was not prepared in 2014. The Narendra Modi-wave prevailing at that time was strong in Nagpur too. So, Gudadhe’s defeat was not a surprise.
Congress insiders admitted that Fadnavis as CM candidate was popular and acceptable in 2019 as well. “The Congress’s Ashish Deshmukh who had just quit the BJP was no match,” they added.
A law graduate, Fadnavis started his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. He achieved the feat of becoming a corporator at 22 years, and the second-youngest mayor in India at the age of 27. He also became the second youngest chief minister at 44 years in 2014. His second tenure as CM lasted for just 80 hours after the 2019 Assembly polls.
Fadnavis contested and won his first Assembly election from Nagpur West constituency in 1999. He retained the seat in the 2004 polls.
Following delimitation, a new constituency Nagpur South West was constituted in 2009. The BJP fielded Fadnavis from this newly restructured constituency where he was pitted against Congress candidate Vikas Thakre. Fadnavis polled 89,258 (51 per cent) votes against Thakre who got 61,483 votes (35.14 per cent). The winning margin in the newly carved seat was 27,775.
In the next two elections (2014 and 2019), Fadnavis retained the Nagpur South West seat comfortably. In the 2014 polls, Fadnavis defeated Gudadhe by 58,942 votes.
Whereas, the 2019 Assembly polls saw Fadnavis contesting against turncoat Congress candidate Ashish Deshmukh. While Fadnavis polled 1,09,238 votes (56.86 per cent), his nearest rival Deshmukh got 59,893 votes (31.18 per cent). However, Fadnavis’s victory margin got reduced to 49,344 votes.
The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will go to the polls on November 20, with the counting slated to be held on November 23.
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