Mumbai: The last time Devendra Fadnavis was Maharashtra CM, he decided to leave his mark on the administration by speeding up stalled infrastructure works, especially in Mumbai. Now, in his second stint, the CM has already marked out the one thing he would like to leave as his legacy in this term: scripting the turnaround of Gadchiroli district.
Fadnavis has appointed himself, along with cabinet colleague Ashish Jaiswal, as guardian minister of Gadchiroli. This is even though CMs do not usually take up guardian ministerships. Naxal violence-hit Gadchiroli is one of Maharashtra’s most sensitive and developmentally backward districts.
Investments worth over Rs 60,000 crore are in the pipeline for Gadchiroli, which the Fadnavis government is trying to fast-track. It also has plans to build an airport and an extension of the Nagpur-Mumbai expressway, known as ‘Samruddhi Mahamarg,’ right up to Gadchiroli to connect the district covered with hills and forests to Mumbai.
In doing so, officials working with CM Fadnavis and analysts said, the leader aims to strengthen not just his image of pushing development and investments but also build himself as a strong state home minister.
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“Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a target of ending Naxalism in the country by 2026. If Fadnavis puts an end to Naxalism in Gadchiroli before that, he stands to get a lot of credit,” said political commentator Hemant Desai.
This comes at a time when multiple law and order incidents across the state—including the alleged sexual harassment of two 4-year-olds in Badlapur last year with the alleged encounter of the accused in the case, the assassination of former MLA Baba Siddique, and the killing of a sarpanch in the Beed district— have raised questions over the department’s efficacy.
“With all these incidents, he hasn’t been able to build a very strong image as home minister, but he could be looking to change that by transforming Gadchiroli,” Desai said.
Fadnavis held the home portfolio even during his first stint as CM from 2014 to 2019, and, then again, in the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government, when he was Deputy CM.
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Special focus on Gadchiroli
The Centre lists Gadchiroli as one of the two Maharashtra districts impacted by left-wing extremism. The other is Gondia. Gadchiroli, which borders Chhattisgarh, is counted among the country’s most backward districts with no major industries until recently. 76 percent of Gadchiroli’s geographical area is covered with forests and the population is largely tribal. The district is, however, rich in mineral resources, which Fadnavis is looking to tap to brand the district as a steel hub.
According to state government figures, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Gadchiroli district in 2022-2023 was Rs 15,747 crore, the lowest of the state’s 36 districts. Gadchiroli, which accounts for 4.68 percent of Maharashtra’s geographical area, had roads of 6,109 kilometres.
Earlier this month, at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, CM Fadnavis made a statement about his commitment to Gadchiroli. The first Memorandum of Association he signed at the event was for an investment commitment in Gadchiroli.
“It was not the biggest MoU to be signed. He could have very well signed it later, but he chose to make that the very first signing at Davos,” a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader close to Fadnavis said.
“It helps send a signal to other industrialists who may be on the fence, worrying about the sensitive nature of the district, that they will have full support from the state government if they take the step to invest here.”
Earlier in January, Fadnavis made a similar statement by choosing to spend the first day of the new year in Gadchiroli—his first official tour after taking over as CM in December last year. He inaugurated certain units of Lloyds Metal Company in the district.
Eye on the district since 1st term as CM
The BJP leader quoted above said Fadnavis had his eye on developing Gadchiroli even during his first term as CM. “He had visited areas of Gadchiroli at the time that no CM had before. He was also the first Maharashtra CM to halt overnight at Gadchiroli then,” he said.
In 2019, Fadnavis halted at Gadchiroli overnight, during the ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’, ahead of the assembly polls that year.
In an interview with India Today at the time, Fadnavis said, “I’m staying here because I want to send across a message. If the CM of a state is not safe in the state, then who else is? The steps that we have taken in the past five years have brought down Naxal activities.”
As deputy CM in the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government, Fadnavis was the guardian minister for Gadchiroli, along with other districts in Vidarbha such as Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Akola and Bhandara.
“The CM has been traveling to Gadchiroli regularly and keeps in touch with officers in charge of anti-Naxal operations, the police, and the district administration directly on SMS,” an official from the CMO told ThePrint.
The official added that in the last few years, Naxalism had drastically reduced in the district, with several villages passing resolutions against helping Maoists. There hasn’t been new recruitment and many from the senior cadre are choosing to surrender before the state police.
And when Fadnavis was in Gadchiroli on 1 January, eleven Maoists—eight women and three men—surrendered at the Gadchiroli police headquarters in his presence.
Ajinkya Gaikwad, assistant professor at the politics department of Mumbai’s SIES College, said the larger narrative of development and security in Gadchiroli will help Fadnavis drive many agendas at once.
“This narrative will enable them to overlook any opposition on the ground to any of the government’s endeavours. Any protests on tribal rights, forest rights or environmental issues could be branded as a ‘Naxal mindset’ impeding the district’s development,” Gaikwad said.
Plans for Gadchiroli
An official from the state industries department said in the last three WEF events, the Gadchiroli district has attracted at least five investment proposals cumulatively worth Rs 61,520 crore. These are from companies such as Pune’s Kalyani Group, which has stakes in the defence and steel sector, Lloyd Metals, and Varad Ferro Alloys.
This year, Fadnavis also signed an MoU with the JSW Group for investments worth Rs 3 lakh crore across Maharashtra, including in Gadchiroli.
While speaking in Gadchiroli during his visit earlier this month, Fadnavis said that the Maharashtra government, while signing mining investment proposals for the district, has insisted that the market should primarily be in the Vidarbha districts and the workforce should also largely comprise the local population.
To further boost investment, the Maharashtra government is taking steps towards building an airport at Gadchiroli. The Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation is in the process of starting land acquisition to build an airport over 229.43 hectares. Simultaneously, it is also in the process of preparing a detailed project report for the airport.
Apart from extending the Nagpur-Mumbai highway, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has planned a road from Durg in Chhattisgarh to Hyderabad that will pass through Gadchiroli.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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