ब्रह्मर्षि-परिवार-/ब्रह्मर्षि-गौरव-चितपावन/ देशस्थ -देवेन्द्र-फडणवीस

Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (Marathi: देवेंद्र गंगाधरराव फडणवीस, born 22 July 1970) is the 18th and current Chief Minister of Maharashtra state, India. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is also the president of the Maharashtra state unit of the BJP and a MLA of Maharashtra from Nagpur South West.

His political career commenced in the early nineties, when he became ward President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (youth wing of the BJP) in Maharashtra. At the age of 21, Fadnavis became the youngest municipal corporator of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and served as corporator for two consecutive terms, in 1992 and 1997. He was the second youngest mayor elected in India, when he served as the Mayor of Nagpur at the age of 27, in 1997. He is also the only person to be re-elected as the Mayor in Council of the State of Maharashtra.

Early life

Fadnavis was born in a Maharashtrian Deshastha Brahmin family to Sarita Fadnavis, a homemaker and former director of Vidarbha Housing Credit Society, and the late Gangadhar-rao Fadnavis, a two-time member of Maharashtra Legislative Council from Nagpur (first with Jan Sangh, later Janata Party, and then with BJP).His elder brother, Ashish, was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).Fadnavis's aunt Shobhatai Fadnavis is another veteran politician in the family, associated with Bharatiya Janata Party. She was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995; she is currently a member of the state legislative council.

Education and early career

Fadnavis as child refused to go to his school, Indira Convent, as the school was named after the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whom he blamed for jailing his father who as part of Jan Sangh was arrested during the Emergency. He was shifted to Saraswati Vidyalaya, from where he continued his education. Fadnavis attended Dharampeth Junior College in the year 1986–87 after which he completed a five year law degree from Law College Nagpur.

He was an active member of ABVP while in college. In the ABVP, he started as a grassroots worker where he painted walls and stuck promotional posters on them for politicians.

Fadnavis also has a post-graduate degree in Business Management and a diploma in Methods and Techniques of Project Management from DSE (German Foundation for International Development), Berlin.

Family and personal life

Devendra Fadnavis married Amruta Ranade in 2006. They have a daughter named Divija. Amruta Ranade is an Associate Vice President of Axis Bank in Nagpur. Ranade hails from a non-political family background. Her parents are doctors in Nagpur.

Political career

In 1992, at age 22, Fadnavis was elected as a corporator from Ram Nagar ward. Five years later Fadnavis became the youngest mayor of the Nagpur Municipal Corporationand became the second youngest mayor in the history of India. In 1999, he was elected to the Maharashtra state assembly for the first time. He is currently serving his fourth term as MLA as of 2014. Fadnavis, was selected the legislative party leader by the new BJP MLAs in a meeting at Vidhan Bhavan in the presence of party's central observers, Union Home minister Rajnath Singh and party's national general secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda. Fadnavis was sworn in as the first chief minister of Maharastra from the BJP on 31 October 2014. His government won a confidence motion by voice vote on 12 November 2014 allowing it to govern.

Positions held

Within BJP

• Ward President, BJYM (1989)
• Office Bearer, Nagpur (west) BJP (1990)
• Nagpur President, BJYM (1992)
• State Vice President, BJYM (1994)
• National Vice President, BJYM (2001)
• General Secretary, BJP, Maharashtra (2010)
• President, BJP Maharashtra (2013)

Legislative

• Member, Nagpur Municipal Corporation - For 2 consecutive terms, during 1992 to 2001
• Mayor, City of Nagpur – (1997 to 2001)
• Member, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly - 4 consecutive terms, since 1999[16]

• Chief Minister of Maharashtra (2014–incumbent)