The RSS has thrown its weight behind Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as home minister Amit Shah has stepped in to micromanage the November polls in the key state, which is believed to have lent credence to the Sangh’s fears that efforts are afoot to undercut the dominance of its favourite leader.

Fadnavis is the most influential leader of the BJP in Maharashtra but his backers fear an effort by the central leadership to sideline him from the state’s politics, somewhat similar to what has been done to powerful regional leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan.

The apprehension has not only alerted the supporters of Fadnavis in the party but also the BJP’s ideological parent, the RSS, which views the Brahmin leader from Nagpur as one of its favourites, sources said.

The RSS has appointed one of its key joint general secretaries, Atul Limaye, to coordinate the election strategy and campaign with the BJP. Insiders, however, said that the RSS leader has been tasked to ensure that Sangh cadres on the ground give their all to project Fadnavis as the face of the BJP in Maharashtra to strengthen his position. A campaign depicting Fadnavis as a modern-day Abhimanyu, a fighter, has already been launched.

The backing from the RSS comes against the backdrop of speculation that the BJP’s central leadership wants Fadnavis to move out of Maharashtra politics and shift to Delhi. Fadnavis, the sources said, is being blamed for the BJP’s poor show in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP could win just nine Lok Sabha seats this time, down from 23 in 2019.

The fear among Fadnavis’s backers has increased since Shah, seen to be the prime driver of the central party’s strategy, is micromanaging the Maharashtra polls scheduled in November. Shah held a closed-door meeting with the leaders of the Mahayuti coalition, including the Shiv Sena and the NCP, on Tuesday to finalise the seat-sharing formula. This was his second visit to the state in recent times.

“Shah micromanaging the polls means that Fadnavis won’t get a free hand in charting the strategy and deciding candidates,” a Maharashtra BJP leader said. This leader said that during a recent meeting, Shah told state leaders to ensure no rebellion takes place after the declaration of candidates.

The RSS has two favourites in the current BJP leadership — Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Fadnavis. Gadkari has already been sidelined and now the parent body fears that Fadnavis too could meet the same fate.

Fadnavis’s stocks have been going down ever since he was “forced” to hand over the chief minister’s chair to Eknath Shinde in June 2022. Shinde, who had rebelled against Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and split the party, was made the chief minister despite the Fadnavis-led BJP being the largest party in the alliance. Fadnavis had reluctantly agreed to become Shinde’s deputy after the central party struck down his wish of not joining the government.

“We feel that Fadnavis was deliberately denied the chief minister’s post to cut him down to size. The induction of leaders like Ajit Pawar of the NCP (who too was made a deputy chief minister) further weakened Fadnavis’s standing,” a BJP leader close to Fadnavis said.

Given the results of the Lok Sabha polls, BJP managers believe that retaining Maharashtra in the November elections would be an uphill task. Even if the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP Mahayuti returns to power, chances of Fadnavis being made the chief minister are low. BJP insiders said that the top leadership has already assured Shinde that he would again be installed as chief minister even if his numbers are lower than the BJP’s.

The RSS wants the BJP leadership to stake claim to the chief minister’s post based on its better position in the alliance and put Fadnavis in charge of the state. If the BJP leadership insists on moving Fadnavis out of Maharashtra, then the RSS would press for him to be made the next BJP president, the insiders said.