Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP’s CM face Devendra Fadnavis has won the Nagpur South-West constituency with a resounding victory, according to the state assembly election results declared here on Saturday.

As soon as the result came in, BJP leader Pravin Darekar demanded that Fadnavis must be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra because the party which secures the highest number of seats is entitled to get the state’s Chief Minister’s post.

Advertisement

Devendra Fadnavis, the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, who is a candidate from the South-West Nagpur assembly constituency, contested for the sixth time. Right from the beginning, the counting trend favoured him. After that, according to the numbers, his lead only kept growing until it became amply clear that he won decisively. On the other hand, the opposition Congress candidate Prafulla Guddhe has faced a huge defeat.

Speaking on the occasion on Friday, he gave all credit for his victory to supporters of the BJP-backed Mahayuti and its allies. Devendra Fadnavis retained his lead by 12,009 votes from his South-West assembly constituency at the end of the sixth round.

Fadnavis plans to leave Mumbai and go to his residence in Nagpur. Earlier during the day, a video which went viral showed him speaking to his mother, Sarita Fadnavis, who had called him up to congratulate him. “I will come in the evening. I will finish everything here and come by evening. I will let you know. Thank you, please give me your blessings,” Fadnavis was heard telling his mother in Marathi.

Fadnavis has written a new chapter in the history of politics in Maharashtra. BJP has bagged a majority three times in a row in 2014, 2019 and now in 2024. No leader in Maharashtra has pulled off such a spectacular hat trick so far.

Fadnavis was Maharashtra Chief Minister in 2014, but in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray managed to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Yet, Fadnavis revived the party and proved himself to be an aggressive opposition leader in Maharashtra. He accepted the post of the Deputy Chief Minister after the BJP top brass ordered him to do so.

During this election campaign, all the parties in the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) and their entire ecosystem targeted Devendra Fadnavis alone, but today’s results showed how the people of Maharashtra eventually voted.