Going beyond politics
A peep into his formative years shows that Devendra’s well-wishers included the late Congress leader Shrikant Jichkar, a former minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet, who spoke highly of the young BJP corporator’s knowledge of economic matters.
After every budget, Jichkar used to analyse it for the public at an auditorium in Nagpur. Devendra never missed the event despite his ideological opposition to Jichkar’s politics.
After Jichkar’s death in an accident in 2003, Devendra on his own came forward to continue his legacy by holding the event every year.
Nagpur’s gift to the country
With a clean and non-corrupt image, he was known for being down to earth. He was popular in Nagpur mostly because, as its mayor for two terms, he ushered in the first publicly maintained toilets, and undertook a cleanliness drive in the nineties that combined overhauling of the sewerage system. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Fadnavis’s non-corrupt image at a public rally and called him “Nagpur’s gift to the country”.
A new age politician
Devendra is an avid reader. He reads about a variety of subjects including finance, administration, politics, energy, and economics. Earlier, he used to read a chapter from the Arthashastra every day.
He is equally eager to know the pulse of the youth. Do you wonder what’s his way to learn about them? Well, he is fond of listening to FM. So whenever he is out driving he would be loving to tune in to FM channels.
Fadnavis is known to enjoy a Subway sandwich as much as Modak or Puran Poli. He is technology savvy and always carries around his iPhone and iPad. His friends will tell you about his love for old Hindi songs and dialogues.
