Devendra Fadnavis had promised in 2019 that he will be back. And 2.5 years later he did. Cut to 2024, the Maharashtra Assembly poll results show that he is back yet again. This time handsomely (and by the impressive numbers BJP is projected to get, will possibly get a bigger role, too).
"Mera paani utarta dekh mere kinare par ghar mat basa lena, main samandar hoon lautkar wapas aaunga (Seeing my water recede, do not build a house on my shores, I am the sea and will come back)," Mr Fadnavis had said in the Maharashtra Assembly five years ago.
The BJP leader, who is Eknath Shinde's deputy in the current government, received a congratulatory call from his mother, Sarita Fadnavis, as he was leading in Nagpur South West constituency. He has a lead of 30,296 votes as of 15:08 pm.
In a picture that's also going viral, Mr Fadnavis is seen hugging BJP Maharashtra unit president Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Four hours after the counting began, the BJP-led Mahayuti seems set for a spectacular win.
There is a general sense of joy all around.
"Ek hain toh safe hain. Modi hai toh mumkin hai," Mr Fadnavis posted on X as BJP was leading in 130 seats. Its rivals, the Congress and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena are far behind - leading in 20 and 19 seats, respectively. 145 is the majority mark in the 288-member assembly.
In both 2014 and 2019 polls, the BJP had been the first party since 1990 to win over 100 seats in the assembly, 123 and 105 seats respectively.
Speaking at a book launch in March this year, Mr Fadnavis had said, "I not only came back, but returned after breaking two parties. It took two-and-half years to come back to power. I had read out a poem during the 2019 assembly poll campaign but only one line from it became popular."
In 2019 assembly polls, undivided Shiv Sena was in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. It demanded the Chief Minister's post, which it claims was promised to it by then BJP chief Amit Shah. Snubbed, Uddhav Thackey joined hands with Congress and NCP and formed the government.
In June 2022, a group of Sena MLAs broke away from Uddhav camp. The BJP supported the pop up group led by Eknath Shinde and made him the chief minister.
Ajit Pawar, facing investigation by many agencies, split his party and joined the Shinde-led government in 2023.
