End of road for Fadnavis after losing face in BJP’s ‘Maha’ defeat?

As the BJP stared at a humiliating defeat for want of numbers in the floor test ordered by the Supreme Court to be conducted on November 27, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been forced to resign to spare his party, BJP, and himself further ignominy.

After alliance partner Shiv Sena broke ranks with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over rotational chief ministership, the latter, with 105 MLAs, was left way short of the majority mark of 145 in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

Initially, the BJP informed the Governor as much – that it did not have the numbers – when Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited it to “show the intent and willingness to from the government”. It was certainly the most appropriate thing to do.

So far, there was no blemish on Fadnavis’ conduct in the present situation as long as one ignores his “I will be back as the chief minister)” boast, and his clear unwillingness to share the CM’s tenure with Shiv Sena, one of the initial founders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) the BJP’s partner of 35 years.

But then, the BJP tried to pull a midnight coup with NCP rebel Ajit Pawar, who claimed to have the support of at least 22 of the 54 party MLAs. The revocation of President’s Rule at 5.47 a.m. and swearing in of Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar at 8 a.m. in which not even the national broadcaster Doordarshan was invited, shocked not only the political rivals but political observers and neutral onlookers as well.

People saw a replay of the Karnataka drama where the BJP engineered defections in opposition parties to from its government. The Bihar incident too was still fresh in people mind where JDU’s Nitish Kumar was apparently forced or lured to desert coalition partner RJD and join hands with BJP. Was it a replay of these incidents? Where is the political morality?

“Now anything can happen. We have stopped guessing,” a lot of veteran political commentators and seasoned journalists were heard saying on television and off the screen.

The Twitter was soon abuzz with a video clip of Fadnavis in which he is telling a public rally during his election campaign that after BJP comes to power ‘Ajit dada’ (Ajit Pawar) will be sent to Arthur Road jail for alleged corruption and he would be “chakki peesing and peesing and peesing (meaning Pawar would be languishing in jail)”.

Lo and behold! On November 23, the same Ajit dada was taking oath of Deputy CM’ office standing right next to Devendra Fadnavis! It dawned on people that having initially denied the offer of forming the government, the BJP had been busy behind the curtains engineering defections in rival parties.

As the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena combine, that had finalised the contours of their coalition moved the Supreme Court, and what unfolded thereafter is public knowledge.

In all the process, the one person who has lost his face is former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. He has been exposed as a politician whose lust for power can make him go to any extent.

Another negative point for Fadnavis is that under his leadership, the BJP’s tally in the state slipped to 105 from 122 in 2014. The party’s vote share too came down marginally despite that fact that there was no formidable challenge from the Opposition.

Besides, the BJP had star campaigners including PM Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief Amit Shah. But still, the BJP fell a gaping 40 seats short of majority.

It showed that even the voters were not too happy with Fadnavis’ governance, especially in the rural areas.

But instead of accepting the people’s mandate with humility, he tried to cling on to power till the very last moment and finally failed.

Now, with a seasoned Nitin Gadkari breathing down his neck, Fadnavis may find it difficult to hold his Maharashtra bastion. Gadkari, a former BJP chief and a blue-eyed boy of the Sangh, will make life difficult for his local rival. It is to be seen to what extent the Delhi bosses like PM Modi and Amit Shah would back Fadnavis. So, the long and short of the Maharashtra politics so far is that Devendra Fadnavis is the net lose in the game.