“I am the Abhimanyu of the modern era. I know how to break the Chakravyuha.” When Devendra Gangadhar Fadnavis made this bold assertion post the BJP’s poor Lok Sabha performance in Maharashtra, it was seen as the kind of bravado the Deputy Chief Minister has come to be known for.

Today, few would grudge Fadnavis’s claim of having emerged standing at the end of a Mahabharat, as the BJP put the Lok Sabha setback in Maharashtra behind it to win its most Assembly seats in the state.

Since he burst onto the national stage after being named by the BJP as the Chief Minister when it formed the government in 2014 along with the united Shiv Sena, the 54-year-old has been at the heart of every twist and turn in the state’s politics. The diminishing of the Sena and NCP in Maharashtra were also seen as helped along by Fadnavis.

After the Lok Sabha setback, with the BJP winning just nine out of 28 seats, Fadnavis twice expressed his decision to resign from the state government and focus entirely on building the organisation. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah dismissed this, saying Fadnavis’s presence in the state government was much-needed in an election year.

Now he has not just upheld that faith placed in him but also proved right his decision to back Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar in the battle for control of the Shiv Sena and NCP.

Having waited, sometimes impatiently, since 2019 to become CM again, Fadnavis is seen as a hair’s breadth away from it now. On Saturday, several BJP leaders openly said that the post belonged to him, including party spokespersons. BJP leader Praveen Darekar said, “The sentiment in the BJP is that the CM should be Fadnavis.”

Fadnavis himself stuck to the party line, saying the three main Mahayuti partners will sit together and decide.

Many believe it’s Fadnavis’s time also because he has been unfairly kept out of the CM post for five years. First, by the united Shiv Sena’s intransigence following the 2019 Assembly results demanding the post by rotation, which led to the alliance collapsing and the BJP losing power. Fadnavis was then involved in a controversial, early morning swearing-in of a government with Ajit Pawar, who was then in the undivided NCP, resulting in a chief ministership that lasted less than 80 hours.

The unlikely Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, which replaced this arrangement in power, used the turn of events to mock Fadnavis for his “Mi punha yein (I shall return)” slogan of the 2019 polls.

Fadnavis then set about proving his point by playing a key role in splitting the Shiv Sena. As Shinde walked away with most of the party MLAs and MPs and joined hands with the BJP, they replaced the MVA in government. Everyone expected Fadnavis to become CM again, but the central BJP forced him to accept the role of Deputy CM, with Shinde getting the top post as the BJP sought to bolster its ally against Uddhav’s Thackeray legacy.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule admitted at the time: “Fadnavis made a huge sacrifice by giving up the CM’s post.”

Third, Fadnavis weaned away Ajit Pawar again from under the nose of his diehard politician uncle Sharad Pawar – this time successfully, and in a repeat of the Sena template. But this time Fadnavis not only had to accept being one of two Deputy CMs, along with Ajit, he also lost the crucial Finance portfolio to the latter.

Highly placed sources in the BJP said that these snubs to their leader were a huge motivation for Fadnavis’s supporters in the current elections. “There was a strong undercurrent that they should get close to the 100-seat mark at any cost to ensure the return of Fadnavis as CM.” On Saturday, the BJP stood at the 132 mark, just 13 short of a simple majority of its own.

Party leaders say Fadnavis also played a major role in encouraging the cadre, many of whom were demoralised after the Lok Sabha polls. At internal meetings, he stressed one mantra — “We can do it, we will win”, and that what was required was working 24X7 “selflessly”. He also led from the front, shedding initial doubts and telling workers he would “deliver the results”.

What was an additional factor in rallying the Sangh and BJP troops behind Fadnavis was, ironically, the constant targeting of the BJP leader during the Maratha reservation agitation, particularly by activist Manoj Jarange-Patil. With the quota stir seen as getting increasingly political, the BJP managed to convey to the public that the former CM deserved better.

Fadnavis’s political journey

A law graduate, Fadnavis started his political career with the RSS student wing ABVP. His father was Jana Sangh and later BJP leader Gangadhar Fadnavis, now deceased, whom fellow Nagpur BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari refers to as his “political guru”.

At 22 years, Fadnavis became a corporator in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and then at the age of 27, its mayor – becoming the second youngest to hold the mayor’s post in the country.

Later, when he became the CM for the first time at the age of 44, it made him the second youngest to occupy that chair.

From his first MLA win in 1999 to the CM’s post, it took Fadnavis 15 years. While he won in 1999 and 2004 from Nagpur West, after delimitation, he has won the past four times from Nagpur South West. His victory margin from Nagpur South West Saturday was 39,710 votes, a dip of 9,000 votes from 2019.

From 2013 to 2015, Fadnavis served as the Maharashtra BJP chief.

Unlike leaders across the political spectrum in the state, Fadnavis has remained largely untainted by accusations of corruption in his rise up the ladder.