His supporters call him the man who can see the future, his critics say he dismantles everything to have his way. This is the story of Devendra Fadnavis.
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00:00He was a politician, he was a model, he had been called a king and a kingmaker as well.
00:13Devendra Fadnavis was born into a Marathi family in Nagpur on 22nd July 1970.
00:20His father, Gangadhar Rao, was an RSS pracharak and an MLC from the Jan Sangh.
00:25In an interview with India Today, he said that during the emergency in 1975, his father
00:31was also arrested.
00:32This incident made him dislike the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
00:36He left his school at the age of 6 because it was named after Indira Gandhi.
00:40After this, his family enrolled him in Saraswati Shishu Mandir.
00:44He was 17 years old in 1987 when he lost his father, from whom he had learned the basics
00:50of politics.
00:51Two years later, he was in college when he joined the RSS student wing Akhil Bhartiya
00:56Vidyarthi Parishad.
00:58After earning a law degree, he pursued business management studies but chose politics as his
01:03career.
01:12At the age of 22, he was elected as a corporator in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation in 1992.
01:18Five years later, at the age of 27, he became the youngest mayor by winning the municipal
01:24elections from the Ramnagar ward of Nagpur.
01:27He entered the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by winning the Nagpur West Constituency two
01:32years later.
01:33Besides being a politician, he worked as a model for a clothing brand in Nagpur.
01:38During his second term as an MLA, he married banker Amrita at the age of 35.
01:43Amrita continued a job at Axis Bank even after he became Chief Minister.
01:48At the age of 44, he became Maharashtra's second youngest Chief Minister.
01:59Before becoming CM, his administrative experience was limited to being a mayor and he had never
02:05held a ministerial position.
02:17As Chief Minister, he faced opposition both within and outside his party but demonstrated
02:22political shrewdness and administrative skill, becoming the first BJP leader to complete
02:28a full five-year term as Maharashtra CM.
02:30He sought to portray himself as a leader untouched by the lure of power.
02:34He wore simple clothes, stood in line to buy tickets and travelled economy class from Mumbai
02:39to Nagpur.
02:40In 2019, his track record and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity helped the BJP
02:46emerge as the single largest party in the state.
02:49That year, he briefly held a second term as Chief Minister for five days but he failed
02:54to prove a majority and had to resign after Ajit Pawar backed out of their alliance.
02:59Subsequently, a Mahavikas Agari government led by Uddhav Thackeray was formed.
03:17Three years later, he was dubbed the architect who split Shiv Sena, which forced Uddhav Thackeray
03:24to resign.
03:25While many expected him to return as Chief Minister, he proposed Shiv Sena rebel Eknath
03:30Shinde's name for the position and took oath as Deputy Chief Minister himself.
03:46Modi said he eventually realised that his party's decision was correct.
03:56After the BJP's underwhelming performance during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he adopted
04:01a more aggressive approach while campaigning for the Assembly elections, delivering the
04:06party its highest seat tally ever in Maharashtra.
04:09This is the story of Divendra Fadnavis who has played the roles of both King and Kingmaker.