In 2014, Devendra Fadnavis was in the right place at the right time – the unlikely candidate became the chief minister of Maharashtra after the BJP became the single largest party. Despite not being a particularly senior leader in the party and despite his being a Brahmin, the ‘wrong’ caste in state politics, he was chosen by Amit Shah to be chief minister.Five years later, in 2019, he was perhaps the wrong man in the wrong office. A good portion of the blame for the failure of the BJP to form a government in Maharashtra rests at his door. Five years in the office of the chief minister of Maharashtra had rendered him arrogant, manipulative, cocky and friendless within his own party.Also read: Maharashtra: Congress Says Talks With NCP Complete, Final Discussions With Sena LeftWhen the time came to form a government, he got no help from party men who could have been expected to build bridges with the Shiv Sena, nor from those party rebels who were independently elected. The BJP got a mere 105 seats compared to 122 it bagged the last time and needed the support of other parties to form the government, but it was not to be.On November 9, 15 days after the election results, he finally stepped down as chief minister, defeated in his attempts to please his ally Shiv Sena. Since then he has maintained a low profile.It has been quite a fall.BJP party workers perform rituals to pray for a Fadnavis government in the state again, in Mumbai, November 8, 2019. Photo: PTI/Shashank ParadeIn fact, there is quiet celebration among many in the BJP who were pointedly targeted, sidelined or otherwise troubled when he was chief minister simply because he was close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and they were afraid to take on the might of the duo.During his term in the driver’s seat, he went after his rivals quietly but effectively. Pankaja Munde was closer to Modi-Shah and could get access to Shah anytime. Eknath Khadse was senior and powerful and seen as a threat. Both got embroiled in controversies. Allegations about Khadse, involving a deal in public land, were published and he had to quit the ministry.Munde’s relative inexperience in administration led to grave errors in awarding contracts for nutritious meals to tribal children as she handed them to suppliers previously blacklisted. It effectively put her on the defensive and seriously affected her political clout.Over his term, Fadnavis assiduously began building his personal profile – with considerable help from a group of media friends – and towards the end of his term, he was being hailed as the young leader to watch out for; a leader with a great future ahead at the national level.For the 2019 elections, the list of candidates excluded several veterans like Vinod Tawde and Chandrakant Bawankule, both former ministers in his cabinet, for no known reason. Khadse too did not make it, though his daughter was given a ticket.Watch | Maharashtra Crisis: BJP Men Flout The Law, AgainMeanwhile, big ticket investments into Maharashtra were slow in coming. A mega $5 billion deal by Foxconn, announced with much fanfare in 2015, has not yet fructified; prolonged negotiations between the company and the government failed to produce any tangible result. His responses and action to tackle rural distress all over the state and the floods in parts of Maharashtra, including in cities like Kolhapur and Pune were also found wanting.Part of what irked his colleagues the most was the way he built his personal profile. Veteran BJP leaders, who tend to be conservative, were aghast at the social profile Fadnavis and his wife, who was fond of dancing with the stars and walking the ramp at fashion shows, kept.But most of all, Fadnavis’ overconfidence in his relationship with senior party leaders seems to have been his undoing, In 2014, he walked a tight rope diplomatically between various factions, including Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Modi-Shah.Over five years, not only did he alienate Gadkari – a competitor in every which way, particularly because of his proximity to the RSS top brass in Nagpur – but during the election campaign, he virtually equated himself with Modi with his slogan Narendra-Devendra ki sarkar (The government of Narendra and Devendra). Leaving Shah out of the equation was a gaffe that was noticed. Fadnavis had also repeatedly said during the campaign, “Mee punha yein” (I will return), rhetoric that implied to voters it was he who they were voting for.The voters were unconvinced and the party did poorly in the elections. The Shiv Sena, which had never quite managed to work out a good equation with him personally, and the BJP in general, saw an opportunity to part ways.At crunch time, Fadnavis had no friends left within the party – Modi, who had beamingly congratulated him after the election results, has remained silent. Amit Shah did not intervene in the attempt to form the government in the state like he had in Haryana.His dreams shattered, Fadnavis was alone and when he quit, with no one to mourn for him.