Today, when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will walk in to the state legislature at his home turf in Nagpur, it will be with an unparalleled, robust self-confidence. Two years ago — at the same venue — it was yet another celebration when he stepped in to face his first-ever full-length legislative session as the CM. However, there were at least five ministers under him who were extremely disappointed that they had not made the cut to the top office. Before going into the winter session of 2014, Fadnavis was also leading a minority government because the Sena had been sitting in the Opposition before joining a week before the session started. The CM had his hands full then — disgruntled party seniors treated him like a novice; the Sena troubled him despite being part of the government.

Masterstroke approach
Fadnavis still has his hands full, but this time, the burden he carries is sans the insecurity that his own party seniors had been causing him by berating him as a boy wonder without any political acumen and administrative skills. The people of Maharashtra — who voted the BJP to power in 2014 — have stood rock-solid with BJP’s first Maharashtra CM again and helped him in triple his party’s share in the small civic bodies.