Why Ashok Chavan’s departure will hit Congress’ prospects in Maharashtra

A Congress leader said that about half of the party’s current strength of 44 MLAs are on good terms with Ashok Chavan.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan’s decision to leave the Congress is a major blow for the party which has been trying to revive its organisation in the state where it was conceived.

Ashok Chavan addresses the media outside his residence in Mumbai on Monday. (PTI)

Son of stalwart Congress leader and former chief minister, Shankarrao Chavan, Ashok Chavan holds considerable sway in Nanded and parts of Marathwada. The region sends 8 Lok Sabha MPs out of 48 in Maharashtra.

The 65-year-old served as the state’s chief minister for three years in the Congress-NCP government from December 2008 to November 2010. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Ashok Chavan was first made minister in 1993, and then again in 1999 in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. During this tenure, he brought in a policy that made the rise of multiplex cinema halls possible.

When Deshmukh had to step down in his second stint as CM after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Chavan was appointed chief minister in his place. He led the Congress to victory in the 2009 assembly elections as the Congress-NCP alliance returned to power for a third successive time in the state. However, within a year, he was asked to step down over allegations of impropriety in the Adarsh Housing Scam.

Chavan was accused of benefitting from the construction of a housing society on defence land meant for families of Kargil war heroes and other defence personnel. It emerged that his wife Ameeta’s family had got 3 flats in the apartment complex at Cuffe Parade. However, the case about impropriety in Adarsh is wending its way in court.

The Congress rehabilitated Chavan in 2014 by fielding him from his bastion Nanded in the Lok Sabha polls despite opposition from then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. In that year of Narendra Modi’s ascendancy, the Congress won only two seats in Maharashtra--one was Nanded and the second was the adjoining constituency of Hingoli, also his area of influence.

The following year Chavan was appointed as Maharashtra Congress president and given the responsibility of reviving the party unit in the state. However, the Congress was routed, and its tally dropped to one seat. Chavan himself lost his seat in Nanded. He resigned as the state Congress chief but returned as a minister in Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in 2019. In 2023, he was appointed as a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body.

“Chavan was one of the handful of leaders in the party who have a strong mass base and can get a few candidates elected to the assembly. He was also a good organisation manager and had supporters in the party across Maharashtra. About half of the Congress’s current strength of 44 MLAs are on good terms with him,” said a senior Congress leader who has worked closely with him. “It’s a major loss for the party. With him going, the party can say goodbye to at least two Lok Sabha seats and half a dozen assembly seats in the Marathwada region,” he added.

Chavan as well as some other senior leaders like Balasaheb Thorat and opposition leader in assembly Vijay Wadettiwar have been complaining to the party high command against the style of functioning of state Congress chief Nana Patole. They wanted him to be replaced before the Lok Sabha elections, but the party leadership did not accept the demand.

“Chavan was expecting the party leadership to hand over the reign in Maharashtra to him but that did not happen. On the other hand, he was under pressure from the central agencies which had put him and his close aides under the scanner for quite some time. It is no surprise that he took this decision now,” said a Congress legislator.

State Congress chief Nana Patole posted on social media after Chavan announced his decision: “It is unfortunate that the leaders who were given a lot by the Congress are leaving the party when it is fighting to save democracy and the Constitution. People are watching.”

On his part, Chavan refused to blame anyone for his decision to quit the party. “As long as I was in the Congress, I worked earnestly for the party. I have taken the decision in my personal capacity. I don’t want to publicly speak about what was happening within the party,” Chavan told the media on Monday.

He said he would take another couple of days to decide his future political course amid widespread speculation that he would be given a Rajya Sabha nomination by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).