Refusing humbly ‘the man of the match’ title for winning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all three Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra’s cliff-hanger contest for six seats, the ex-CM Devendra Fadnavis has focused his sights on a series of bigger games in the future that he wants to win for restoring the party’s glory that he said was ‘robbed of’ in the winter of 2019.  Mocked all the time ever since, he has preferred to be steady and ever ready, for he believes it will make him victorious, if not soon but later.

Many columns in print and long hours on air have been dedicated to Fadnavis’s mastery over the electioneering skills shown in the RS polls, in Bihar and Goa. BJP insiders, his baiters within the BJP and outside it, admit that it was his in-depth planning and wooing of the upset MLAs, including the independents who swear by their allegiance with certain leaders in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, for supporting the BJP in the RS polls. Cementing his ‘numero uno’ position in the State BJP further, Fadnavis has promised to repeat the feat in the June 20 Legislative Council polls. The upsets will be much bigger and dramatic, believe the BJP and MVA leaders, if the elections to 10 seats have more candidates than the vacancies available. Fadnavis has taken up the challenge, issuing an advice to the Sena and others in MVA that they could still avoid the contest by withdrawing the extra candidates on Monday. But negotiations seem to be the thing of the past in such a volatile political climate. The BJP is not willing to withdraw any of its six contestants. So, assume that the gloves are off, once again.