Who are the BJP frontrunners for Maharashtra CM's post?

The Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged by winning 120 seats as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly

Devendra Fadnavis
BJP's youthful leader, who comes from the Brahmin community, tops the list of party's frontrunners for the chief minister's post. The son of a former MLC, Fadnavis rose to the state BJP chief’s position after rising through the ranks as an active RSS swayamsevak to mayor of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation to being a two-term legislator. Known for his oratory and legislative performance to which he brought a deep understanding of issues, Fadnavis was also responsible in exposing a slew of corruption cases and scams that took place during the Congress-NCP government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his poll campaign in Nagpur showered praise on Fadnavis for working hard to corner the Congress-NCP government on corruption.
While he lacks administrative experience, his supporters argue that if Modi can become chief minister of Gujarat during his first term as legislator and prime minister after winning Lok Sabha poll for the first time, Fadnavis is best suited for CM's job.
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Eknath Khadse
The leader of opposition in the 12th state assembly is from north Maharashtra and belongs to the Leva Patil community, which falls in the other backward classes (OBC) category. Along with Fadnavis, he was also instrumental in targeting Congress-NCP on corruption cases and scams. Khadse, who worked hard to spread party's wings in north Maharashtra, the erstwhile bastion of Congress, is a party loyalist and does not belong to any group. If selected, he will become the first chief minister from north Maharashtra.  He had worked as the minister for finance and irrigation during BJP-Sena alliance government during 1995 & 1999. However, the only downside is that he is not in very good health and is undergoing treatment, which puts a question mark on his ability to handle the rigours of the chief minister’s office.

 

Vinod Tawde

Vinod Tawde: 
The leader of opposition in the state council, Tawde is a Maratha from the Konkan region of the state. Before joining BJP, he was an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and has never shied from expressing his chief ministerial ambitions. Tawde has been active in developing the Konkan belt, an erstwhile Congress stronghold that was later grabbed by the Shiv Sena. He was elected for the first time to the assembly from Borivli seat in the Mumbai suburbs, which has been BJP's stronghold. He had never worked in the government but as a leader of opposition was active in attacking the Congress-NCP government on issues ranging from corruption to administrative and procedural lapses.




 

Pankaja Munde

Pankaja Palve-Munde: 
The daughter of deceased BJP stalwart Gopinth Munde has stunned the BJP leaders by announcing that she is the only mass leader qualified to take up the chief minister's job (she subsequently said her quotes were taken out of context). She was elected for the second time from Parali seat in  Beed district, her father's bastion. Palve-Munde is from the Vanjari community and earlier led the party's youth wing. She lacks experience in running the administration and is relatively junior to the others vying for the CM’s post. BJP president Amit Shah during an election rally pointed out that party may give a crucial role to her in a bid to lure votes from the Vanjari community and other backward classes.

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