Maharashtra Congress has suffered its third major setback, larger than the previous ones, within the span of one month. Congress veteran and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, has resigned from the grand old party. Chavan parted ways with the party after an association of around four decades.
In political circles, it was widely speculated that the primary cause of Ashok Chavan's estrangement from the Congress stemmed from his purported discussions about displacing Nana Patole from the party leadership and assuming the role of State Congress President himself. However, despite his aspirations, the Congress high command did not endorse this move, leading to his decision to distance himself from the party.
Chavan is one of the most prominent figures in Maharashtra politics and held the post of chief minister from December 2008 to November 2010. He is one of the affluent politicians of the state. His exit from the party will not only weaken the party in one of the most significant states, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, but also serve as a morale setback for its workers.
Ashok Chavan, the son of Shankarrao Chavan, who served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for two terms from 1975 to 1977 and 1986 to 1988, holds significant sway in the Marathwada region. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Chavan won the Nanded Lok Sabha seat with a vote margin of more than 80,000. He was one of the two Congress candidates who managed to win their seats amid the strong Modi wave. However, in 2019, Chavan lost his seat to BJP's Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar by a margin of around 40,000 votes.
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Ashok Chavan controls the Bhaurao Chavan Co-operative Sugar mill in his home district of Nanded in the Marathwada region. Control over sugar factories in the cooperative sector gives him a hold over lakhs of sugarcane growers who form a sizeable segment of the electorate in rural Maharashtra.
Ashok Chavan's political career
Ashok Chavan was also the Minister of Cultural Affairs, Industry, Mines and Protocol in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. He became MLA from Bhokar seat of Nanded district in 2019. Was MP twice and MLA four times. He also served as the President of Maharashtra Congress from 2015 to 2019. Elected as Lok Sabha MP for the first time in 1987. Was elected MP for the second time` in 2014. Apart from this, he was also a member of the Legislative Council once.
Controversies
His tenure was marked by scandal allegations; he was accused of using his office to fund his relatives' bank. In this case, he received relief from the Bombay High Court, which rejected the governor's sanction to prosecute him.
In the 2009 Assembly Elections, he was accused of concealing expenses on a paid supplement titled "Ashok Parva" in a leading Marathi daily.
In last few year, incidents involving Chavan have kept rumours of his probable exit alive. In June 2022, when cross-voting cost the Congress Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council seats, fingers had been pointed at Chavan.
A month later, the senior leader along with 11 MLAs close to him had not turned up for the trust vote sought by the BJP-Shinde Sena government, after toppling the government of NCP, Congress and Uddhav Sena. Chavan had claimed at the time that they had got caught in traffic and were not able to get to the Assembly on time.
Chavan is expected to join the BJP, though he insisted on Monday that he had not taken any call yet.
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