What was Devendra Fadnavis hinting at with his cryptic social media post 'real flight of eagle is yet to come'?

Speculations are rife that the new Maharashtra chief minister and deputy chief ministers will take oath on Monday. Though there is no official confirmation in this regard, Deepak Kesarkar, a senior minister from the Shiv Sena (Shinde) faction told reporters that only the chief minister and his deputies are likely to take oath tomorrow.

Now that Mahayuti has a clear mandate, the focus shifts to who the next chief minister will be. The BJP's stellar performance, winning 234 out of 288 seats it contested, puts the focus on the most probable name: Devendra Fadnavis. 

Fadnavis, the Maharashtra chief minister from 2014 to 2019, waited patiently by playing the deputy leader to Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde for two years. This time around, it looks like he has made his intentions clear with a cryptic message on X just after the results were announced. It read: "The real flight of the eagle is yet to come". 

His supporters believe Fadnavis has the chief minister's chair in sight.

The Fadnavis family too has made their intentions clear. Fadnavis' mother Sarita didn't shy away from stating how confident she is that her son will become the next Chief Minister. "Of course, he will become the Chief Minister. This is a big day because my son has become a big leader in the state. He worked hard 24 hours a day. He did not care about eating or sleeping. He just kept campaigning," Sarita Fadnavis told reporters. 

His daughter Divija Fadnavis, however, stopped short of confirming his elevation to the post of Chief Minister. "I am very happy, thank you all for showing us so much support, it means a lot to us," she said. On whether her father would stake a claim for the top post, Divija said the party leaders would "sit together and take a decision." 

"Whatever the decision will be, it will be good," she added. 

However, it has to be watched whether Eknath Shinde, leader of Shiv Sena which won 57 out of 87 seats it contested, would express interest in remaining the chief minister.  

One thing that would stop Fadnavis would probably be the caste dynamics as Fadnavis is a Brahmin. The Maharashtra politics have often had a Maratha leader at his helm, with 13 chief ministers belonging to it. Naturally, it is important to have a Maratha leader like Eknath Shinde at its helm. 

At this point, the Maratha community seem to not favour Fadnavis much, as evident from Maratha leader Manoj Jarange-Patil's statements. It was after Fadnavis assumed power in 2016 that Maharashtra saw the massive Maratha agitation for quotas in jobs and education. 

Shinde too claimed that he deserves the top post considering his leadership was instrumental in helping Mahayuti's success, especially after the Lok Sabha debacle. He points out that the most crucial of his welfare projects that translated into votes was Ladki Bahin Yojana, which was his "brainchild".