Ashok Chavan, who once led revival of Maharashtra Congress, resigns from party

Ashok Chavan is the third prominent Congress leader in Maharashtra to quit the party after Milind Deora and Baba Siddique over the last month.

MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, 65, resigned from the Congress and the state assembly on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said, citing his one-line resignation letter to the state Congress president Nana Patole.

Ex-MP and former chief minister Ashok Chavan resigned from the Congress on Tuesday. (PTI)

Chavan who represents the Bhokar assembly segment in Nanded in the assembly, later met speaker Rahul Narwekar , and announced his resignation from the assembly on X, formerly Twitter. “Today i.e. on Monday, February 12, 2024, I have tendered my resignation as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 85-Bhokar Assembly Constituency to the Assembly Speaker Rahulji Narvekar,” Chavan said.

To be sure, the post did not comment on his exit from the Congress.

Ashok Chavan is the third prominent Congress leader in the state to quit the party after Milind Deora and Baba Siddique over the last month.

As news of Chavan’s resignation emerged, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared that some prominent leaders from other parties will join the BJP. “Many leaders from other parties are eager to join the BJP. Aage aage dekhiye hota hai kya.. (See what happens next),” he said at a press conference on Monday.

A prominent Maratha politician from the Marathwada (central Maharashtra) region, his father SB Chavan, too, was the chief minister of Maharashtra apart from being the Union home minister. The Chavans are the only father-son duo in the state’s history to become chief ministers.

Ashok Chavan’s career

Ashok Chavan served as minister in successive Congress-led governments in Maharastra after 1999 and was picked to be the chief minister in 2008 after Vilasrao Deshmukh was forced to step down following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The Congress returned to power in the 2009 assembly elections and Ashok Chavan continued as the state’s chief minister. But he was told by Congress to resign in November 2010 over allegations that he approved additional Floor Space Index (FSI) for Adarsh housing society at Cuff Parade in Mumbai in exchange for two flats for his relatives. He was also charged with illegally approving, as the then revenue minister, allotment of 40% of the flats to civilians.

The Congress, however, rehabilitated him in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and he was given the party ticket to contest from Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, one of the two seats Congress won in the state 2014. In 2015, he was appointed as Maharashtra Congress president and was credited for his efforts to revive the party organisation, which was in bad shape following successive defeats in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Ashok Chavan was also inducted into the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray as a minister.