WHAT was a foregone conclusion got officially endorsed when Mr. Devendra Fadnavis took oath of office of Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the third time -- after having overcome many a hurdle in government formation. But before the glittering oath ceremony at Mumbai’s historic Azad Maidan, Mr. Fadnavis had committed himself and his Government to fulfilling the promises the MahaYuti had made to the people of Maharashtra -- during his acceptance speech in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party meet.

 

He demonstrated a genuine consciousness that his fresh innings at Maharashtra’s helm will be loaded with responsibility towards larger public good in tune with the national goals. To the people of Maharashtra -- and India -- the tone and tenor of the speech by Mr. Fadnavis were refreshing and assuring, to say the least. The general feeling was that the new dispensation led by Mr. Devendra Fadnavis will herald good times to Maharashtra, thanks to the mandate it has won and also thanks to the realm positivism that got launched with the much-awaited oath ceremony. Of course, this stage did not come all by itself post-results. Though the popular mandate was simply overwhelming, the political community in the winning alliance could not arrive at definitive role-deployment to different players -- in the process giving rise to wild speculations many of which made no sense. Yet, that jungle of speculations did demonstrate the high degree of difficulty for the Mahayuti top-brass to arrive at final choices that would take care of every nuance of power game that went on for full 12 days after the results.

 

It was certainly a difficult situation and the MahaYuti leadership must be congratulated for sorting things out fairly amicably -- eliciting a sigh of relief from the whole country. The emergence of Mr. Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister of Maharashtra signalled many developments: one, it showed a near-total decimation of the Opposition camp; two, it brought to fore the authentic popular wish in favour of developmental agenda -- beyond the hollow promises made by the Opposition; three, it endorsed once again the cultural difference between organisational matrices of the BJP and other parties. Once again, the BJP emerged as a highly disciplined political organisation with a great sense of national purpose -- beyond personalities and beyond narrow interests and goals. All these attributes became all the more pronounced during the legislative elections in Maharashtra -- much to the people’s delight. Mr. Devendra Fadnavis was right when he highlighted the sense of responsibility as greater than the sense of joy of having won the elections in an unprecedented manner.

 

The stupendous success of the MahaYuti certainly has raised popular expectations and those can be scary, to say the least. However, the collective experience of the stalwarts of the new Maharashtra Government will certainly be better than the challenge and tide over all the difficulties in delivering what was promised. The best part of the re-emergence of Mr. Fadnavis as Chief Minister is that finally the outgoing Chief Minister Mr. Eknath Shinde accepted the new arrangement finally in a graceful manner -- no matter the earlier edginess and uncertainties. There are enough reasons to hope and expect the old combination in a changed format would provide a lasting solution to Maharashtra’s challenges of governance. These elections and their outcome have endorsed once again the core strengths of the BJP. May this remain Maharashtra’s enduring feature for the times to come -- simply because the State needs such a committed leadership in coming times.