Mumbai: Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, who was rumoured to be on the way to BJP, has gained strength with inclusion in the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Chavan had been lying low since he had to step down as CM in 2010 following the Adarsh housing scam. He was replaced by Prithiviraj Chavan when it came to light that he had obtained a flat in Adarsh, a residential society in upmarket Colaba meant for defence personnel.
Chavan was made to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 from his home turf Nanded. Though the Congress suffered a rout, Chavan was among the two Congress MPs from the state. He skilfully used this tenure in national politics to make an impression on the party leadership.
In 2015, he was made state Congress president but lost the Lok Sabha election from Nanded to BJP’s Pratap Patil Chikhlikar. He offered to resign but the leadership entrusted him with the responsibility of assembly polls where the party won 44 seats.
Chavan had played important role in the creation of MVA
Chavan later played an important role in the creation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and became a key minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. Since the MVA government’s ouster, there had been rumours that Chavan could join the BJP but he kept denying them. He came under suspicion once again when he, along with several other party MLAs, missed the vote of confidence on the Eknath Shinde-led government.
Chavan’s recent closeness to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge is said to have won him a place in the CWC, the topmost body of the party after the high command. The body has 39 main members and Chavan has been included in it for the first time.
Congress high command not happy with Nana Patole
The choice of CWC members clearly shows that the party high command is not very happy with MPCC president Nana Patole with whom Chavan doesn’t share a great equation. Earlier this month, the party appointed Vijay Wadettiwar as Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. Wadettiwar, incidentally, is close to Chavan, who will now have an upper hand in the distribution of party tickets in the state.
While Chavan has been elevated, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat has been dropped from the CWC. This is seen as the result of Nashik legislative council election fiasco where Thorat’s nephew Satyajeet Tambe contested and won as an independent candidate even though his father was offered the party ticket. Thorat’s detractors in the Congress had claimed that he had tacitly supported Tambe in the elections.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president chief Ashok Jagtap is being blamed for Chandrakant Handore’s loss in the legislative council poll last year. While Jagtap has already been replaced with Varsh Gaikwad, Handore’s elevation to the CWC, too, shows that the party leadership is thinking seriously about its lost bastion of Maharashtra.
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