CM Devendra Fadnavis gets hero’s welcome in Nagpur

* Thousands of people thronged the streets and still more continued pouring in to get a glimpse of Devendra Fadnavis on his maiden arrival after taking over as Chief Minister
* Rangolis of BJP symbol of Lotus, aarti, shower of flower petals, slogans in praise, sea of Nagpurians, and spilling over enthusiasm and joy welcome Fadnavis
By Kartik Lokhande 
Sunday, the November 2, 2014, will be recorded in the history of Nagpur in golden letters. For, on this day, a sea of Nagpurians welcomed the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra from the city in a never-seen-before manner. For, how much the city loves the man called Devendra Fadnavis, was seen on every street in the form of colourful rangolis, gantries, hoardings, banners, posters, shower of flower petals, slogans, joy, respect, and awe. For, entire Orange City had become one persona with only one mood -- celebration.
On his maiden arrival in his home-town after taking over as the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) elected Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Fadnavis was overwhelmed by the affection shown by the people from different walks of life. Youngsters, women, senior citizens, children, businessmen, political workers, students, common man, doctors, engineers, cops, officers, all were on streets since late afternoon. Anticipation was in the air since Sunday morning. Already, most streets were dominated by huge gantries and BJP flags to welcome the city’s own Devendra.

Glimpses of Fadnavis' grand reception in his home-town Nagpur on maiden arrival after taking over as Chief Minister of Maharashtra. (Photo courtesy: Satish Raut/The Hitavada)

Fadnavis arrived at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport at 4.30 PM. Mayor Praveen Datke welcomed him with bouquet. Anoop Kumar, Divisional Commissioner; K K Pathak, Commissioner of Police; Dr Harshdeep Kamble, Chairman of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT); Abhishek Krishna, District Collector; Shyam Wardhane, Municipal Commissioner; Anup Kumar Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police; Ravindra Kadam, Special Inspector General of Anti-Naxalite Operations; Dr Aarti Singh, Superintendent of Police (Nagpur Rural), Shivajirao Jondhale, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad; Hemantkumar Pawar, Additional Municipal Commissioner; and all the BJP MLAs and senior leaders and workers welcomed him at the airport. Soon after he came out of the airport, he was greeted by a huge roaring crowd eager to see the first Chief Minister from the city.
From the airport, Fadnavis mounted an open-top bus decorated in the form of a chariot specially to mark the maiden arrival of the first Chief Minister from the city, Former MP Banwarilal Purohit, Devendra’s wife Amruta Fadnavis, MLC Prof Anil Sole, 10 other BJP MLAs from the district namely Krishna Khopde, Sudhakar Deshmukh, Vikas Kumbhare, Sudhakar Kohale, Dr Milind Mane, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Ashish Deshmukh, Sudhir Parwe, D Mallukarjun Reddy, Sameer Meghe, former minister Sulekha Kumbhare, MP Ashok Nete, MLA Dr Pankaj Bhoyar, MLC N G Ganar, and other leaders accompanied Fadnavis in his massive rally that was even bigger than any ‘Shobhayatra’ taken out in the city so far.

Published in The Hitavada CityLine on Nov 3, 2014

Mayor Praveen Datke and senior corporator Sandip Joshi led the procession to clear the path for the chariot to move ahead. The young workers, supporters, and enthusiastic students rode motorcycles, waved BJP flags, and raised slogans. At Dr Hedgewar Memorial near the airport, Fadnavis stopped for a while and paid tributes. From there, at every prominent location in the city and road-sides swollen with bubbling crowd, Fadnavis got a rousing welcome. May it be Somalwada, Chhatrapati Square, Sawarkar Nagar Square, Khamla, Laxmi Nagar Square, everywhere the space was packed to such an extent that not an inch of road was visible for a long distance. Cheerful and smiling face of Fadnavis and other leaders and BJP flags only filled the sight.
At Jerryl Lawns, Dr Avinash Banait and others presented a silver sword and a special Maratha turban to the newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The road from Khamla Square to Shankar Nagar Square, had adorned a new look with beautifully drawn colourful rangolis of BJP’s party symbol of Lotus. Vaishnav Shimpi Samaj group performed bhajans and kirtans near Police Training School. Countless many organisations and overwhelming crowd of people gave one an impression as if the Orange City as a whole was celebrating the occasion. As the procession drew closer to Fadnavis’ residence near Trikoni Park in Dharampeth, the massive crowd was being joined in by several huge tributary crowds. Trikoni Park had become the nucleus of the city’s single activity of celebration.
At Trikoni Park, the enthusiasm of people could not be bound by police barricading and bandobast. The restriction of space also could not deter Nagpurians from giving it a try to fit in the dense crowd. The illumination across the city was such that even the falling night appeared to have held back its dark, to welcome the city’s son Devendra Fadnavis. After Fadnavis’ felicitation also, till late night, the city streets were still flooded with people.
Though it was well past midnight, the city’s mood remained upbeat. For, the city treated the celebration and massive reception given to Fadnavis, not as an end of celebration but a beginning of an era of deliverance.