The News Minute | October 28, 2014 | 4.37 pm ISTAfter much speculation over who the BJP would name chief minister, the state president of the party Devendra Fadnavis has been named for the top job.Fadnavis was elected leader of the Legislature Party on Tuesday, nominated by his colleague Eknath Khadse, who was also one of the names doing the rounds for the top job. On Tuesday however, BJP MLAs chose Fadnavis as the leader. Rajnath Singh told rpeorters that no other name had been proposed. Since the results were announced, several names were doing the rounds for the post of chief minister. Among them were Pankaja Munde, the late Gopinath Munde’s daughter, Nitin Gadkari, whose supporters demanded that he be made the chief minister, and also Eknath Khadse, who wanted to be chief minister. Given Maratha sentiment and the Sena’s core support base, Fadnavis’ Brahmin background was considered a drawback, in comparison with Pankaja Munde, who has not only inherited the support for her father Gopinath Munde, but also belongs to the OBC community.Although Fadnavis comes from a political family, he started his career right at the bottom, and also tasted success early. Fadnavis was born into a Brahmin family in Nagpur in 1970. His father Gangadhar Rao Fadnavis was an MLC from Nagpur and his mother Sarita Fadnavis comes from the famous Kaloti family of Amravati, and was the Director of Vidarbha Housing Credit Society.With degrees in law and business management, Fadnavis started his career at the age of 21, as a councillor in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. He also went on to become Nagpur’s youngest mayor at 27. However, his association with the RSS-BJP begins at an RSS shakha at Trikoni Park and joined the ABVP later. He was also the youth wing’s president in 1989.Fadnavis is also seen to be aggressive in the Assembly, taking to task the Congress-NCP government on a host of issues including corruption.His appointment at state party president did not go down well with many people including senior leaders from the party in Maharashtra such as Nitin Gadkari. The move was reportedly a means to placate the late Gopinath Munde, who was the party’s tallest leader in the state.There was a fair amount of support within the party for Fadnavis to take over as chief minister. At a rally in Nagpur recently, several leaders kept referring to “Kendrat Narendra, Rajyat Devendra†(Narendra Modi at the centre, and Devendra Fadnavis at the state).VidarbhaEarlier, there was much speculation that the BJP would grant the long-standing demand for statehood to Vidarbha, and make Fadnavis the chief minister of the new state.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said during the campaign that he would not allow the division of Maharashtra as long as he was in power. Asked about this, Fadnavis had said that the BJP’s central manifesto allowed for the creation of smaller states but denied that the state BJP had not promised a new state for the Vidarbha region as creating a new state was the centre’s prerogative.Fadnavis had also defended the prime minister’s remark, saying that what Modi was referring to was the removal of Mumbai from Maharashtra.