Mumbai: In what could be a major setback for the Congress party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, resigned from the party’s primary membership on Monday.
Chavan has submitted his resignation to Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole on Monday. Also, in the letter, Chavan mentioned his designation as a former MLA.
The former MPCC president also served as MP of Lok Sabha from 1987 to 1989 and was re-elected to the lower house in May 2014.
He was the Vice President and General Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress Committee during the period 1986 to 1995.
He served the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for three terms starting in 1999 till May 2014.
He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state from December 8 2008 to November 9 2010. On November 9 2010, the Congress Party asked him to resign from office over corruption allegations relating to Adarsh Housing Society scam.
In the 2014 general elections, Chavan was elected from the Nanded constituency but lost the seat in 2019 Pratap Patil Chikhalikar of the BJP
Chavan comes from an influential political family. He is the son of Shankarrao Chavan, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Union Home Minister.
Chavan is the third big name to desert the Congress ship in Maharashtra. First to go was former South Mumbai MP Milind Deora followed by former MLA Baba Siddique.
When questioned if Chavan was going to join the BJP, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis gave a cryptic reply.
“Several tall leaders of other parties want to join BJP. Especially, several Congress leaders are in touch with us because of the behaviour of the senior leaders. They are feeling suffocated in their party…Who all are in our contact that will be revealed soon. Aage aage dekhiye hota hain kya”
Chavan who represents Bhokar, Nanded as an MLA was reported to have severe differences with state party chief Nana Patole.
