CM Devendra Fadnavis shows he's top gun in Maharashtra BJP

A quick look at key developments in the BJP leads one to the conclusion that it's neither Union minister Nitin Gadkari nor state BJP president Raosaheb Danve, but rather chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who is the real boss.

When he took over the reins nearly five years ago, the party leadership had given him veto power.

This resulted in all other state leaders getting sidelined. Fadnavis's first master stroke was the elections to the zilla parishads and municipal councils. BJP leaders had felt he would allow the local leadership to handle the show, but they were proved wrong when the CM treated the polls on a par with state assembly elections and set a new record. The BJP has emerged as the largest party in all local self-government bodies.

More recently, Fadnavis was faced with the challenge of retaining BJP's alliance with the Shiv Sena. In fact, owing to a massive public spat between senior leaders of both parties, it appeared Shiv Sena would quit the government. With both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah giving Fadnavis the carte blanche to handle the situation, the CM successfully brought Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to the negotiating table for the Lok Sabha polls.

Another challenge was the banner of revolt raised by smaller parties, which were given nominations during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Fadnavis managed to pacify them and that, too, without offering a single seat.

His next big test is improving the party's seat tally. A confident Fadnavis says it will be a cakewalk.

Son overtakes dad in Dhule

It came as a surprise for Dhule legislator Kunal Patil, 44, when the Congress leadership nominated him for Dhule LS constituency especially considering his father Rohidas Patil, 79, was the frontrunner.

In fact, the state-level screening committee had recommended the senior Patil for the seat. Apparently the decision to replace Rohidas with his son was taken by none other than Congress president Rahul Gandhi after hearing him at a public rally in Dhule on March 1. It was the biggest ever rally in the recent past and Kunal spoke for a few minutes, but his speech made an impact. He had pointed out the failure of the Modi government as well as the dismal performance of the state government-led by Fadnavis.