Bracing For The Big Battle

Administrative goodwill, a can-do reputation and effective publicity—Devendra Fadnavis seems to have the right weaponry for the forthcoming state assembly election

- Kiran D. Tare

In the past fortnight, no less than a hundred intellectuals gathered, first in Pune and then in Aurangabad, to give the Devendra Fadnavis government a collective thumbs-up. The meetings, organised by the forum ‘Academics 4 Devendra’, declared the chief minister an ‘able administrator’ and ‘honest politician’. The gatherings were part of Fadnavis’s all-out efforts, in the run-up to the state assembly election, to establish himself as a dynamic mass leader. To this end, the forum, launched by Fadnavis’s well-wishers, has planned seminars and conferences across the state. In similar programmes held so far, participants were asked which of the Fadnavis government’s decisions impressed them the most and what policies should be formulated in the future.