“Mi Punha Yein [I will return],” declared Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis in the Legislative Assembly, at rallies, and from podiums across the state during his 2019 campaign. The line proved prophetic. He took oath as the Chief Minister in November that year. However, his government lasted for 70 hours. Uddhav Thackeray took over as chief minister, but he, too, was ousted from power. Eknath Shinde then formed the government with the BJP’s help while Fadnavis was named his deputy. Now, cut to 2024. Fadnavis has indeed returned. This time, as a CM with Shinde as his deputy. And all credit goes to his hard work and perseverance.
Fadnavis, who became the youngest mayor of Nagpur at 27 and the second youngest in India’s history, is the son of late BJP leader Gangadhar Fadnavis, whom Union Minister Nitin Gadkari often refers to as his “political guru”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once famously declared, “Devendra Fadnavis is Nagpur’s gift to the country,” and we all agree.
Projects long stuck finally found steel and concrete under his watch. Take the Mumbai Metro expansion. It was conceptualised in the early 2000s, and it truly gathered pace during his tenure. He even roped in the DMRC to construct two key corridors.
The Atal Setu, a 21-km sea bridge linking South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, had been stalled for decades until Fadnavis revived it. Similarly, the Mumbai Coastal Road project, which connects Marine Drive to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, saw major breakthroughs and steady progress under his leadership.
He greenlit Phase 1 of the Pune Metro Project in 2014 and launched the Samruddhi Mahamarg – a 701-km expressway linking Mumbai to Nagpur.
As mayor, he tackled Nagpur’s water crisis head-on by launching the Pench Water Supply Scheme. He also helped the municipal corporation steer out of the financial crisis by doubling the property tax. This raised Rs 35 crore.
Today, Devendra Fadnavis will take the stage as the guest at Express Adda in Mumbai, in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group, and Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor at The Indian Express.
Fadnavis 3.0 government has added several feathers to its cap, most notably the record-breaking Rs 15 lakh crore investment MoUs signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.
Fadnavis’s political journey began with his first Assembly election in 1999, and since then, he has maintained an unbroken winning streak at the ballot box. In April 2013, he rose to become the state BJP president, leading the party to a landmark victory in the 2014 Assembly elections and became the chief minister for the first time.
The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group. Previous guests at the Adda include Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, philanthropist Bill Gates, actors Pankaj Tripathi and Tabu, oncologist and writer Siddhartha Mukherjee, musician T M Krishna, ecologist Romulus Whitaker and writer William Dalrymple.