Devendra Fadnavis has clinched a convincing victory ousting his nearest rival by over 30,000 votes. What made it happen?
For Devendra Fadnavis, victory is his own making. It would be unfair to attribute his convincing win to the pro-BJP sentiment only. Much before the elections, Fadnavis had gained wider acceptability in the state as compared to many other party leaders. The fact that he was well ahead of his rival from Congress, Praful Gudadhe, was evident from the past trends, which indicated that Nagpur South West constituency is a traditional BJP bastion. In fact, the pre-election campaigns saw BJP portraying him as the next Chief Minister.
As a people’s leader, the three-time MLA has done work at a ground level for every section of the voters in the constituency (around 3.5 lakh). Be it dalits or brahmins, people voted for him irrespective of caste and religion.
Fadnavis has been methodical all through his tenure as an MLA. Besides the office staff, his network of 16 corporators and party workers helped him address the day-to-day issues in the constituency and take care of the development aspects.
He had rightly made use of his in-depth knowledge of state administration and leveraged the “Congress-NCP misrule” to his advantage. He had a tough job in hand to ensure that the BJP did well in the Lok Sabha elections, but he excelled. He reprised the same magic in assembly elections as well.
Caste polarisation didn’t have any impact on Fadnavis as the voters, especially the “anti-Brahminical Maratha” and OBC community kept the caste factor aside and voted for education, employment and development. He was judged for the social issues he has been raising and fighting for. Not to forget the role he played in leading charge against NCP’s Ajit Pawar on corruption allegations.
Fadnavis’ unflinching service to BJP ever since early 90s and his proximity to Sangh Parivar had put a stamp of loyalty on the party state president. Moreover, squeaky clean image did him a world of good. Unfortunately for the Congress candidate Praful Gudadhe, his promise of providing improved health facilities to all sections of society and developing infrastructure didn’t find many takers.
Related Information:
Assembly Election Results 2014
Maharashtra Election Results
Haryana Election Results
