Devendra Fadnavis, a young leader who has made a mark as an opposition legislator in Maharashtra, was on Thursday made the new president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
BJP President Rajnath Singh made the appointment here, signalling a patch-up between party’s senior leaders Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde in Maharashtra.
Though Mr. Fadnavis, 43, belongs to Nagpur, the home turf of former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, his name was pitched by Mr. Munde for quite some time. He replaces Sudhir Mungantiwar, a Gadkari confidant, who was being pitched by the former BJP president for a second term.
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Mr. Singh has said the appointment was made after a consensus among various leaders of the state. Mr. Fadnavis is seeking to contest from Nagpur Parliamentary constituency in the next general election.
Mr. Fadnavis, who represents Nagpur constituency, is a Law graduate, a Post Graduate in Business Management and a Diploma holder in Methods and Techniques of Project Management from Berlin.
He has served as an elected member on the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur for two consecutive terms in 1992 and 1997. Mr. Fadnavis became the second youngest Mayor in the country when he served as the Mayor of Nagpur. He is also the only person to be re-elected and serve as the first ‘Mayor in Council’ of Maharashtra.
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Mr. Fadnavis has also been the general secretary of the BJP in Maharashtra.