Ashok Chavan

Ashok Shankarrao Chavan (Marathi: अशोक शंकरराव चव्हाण; born (1958-10-28)28 October 1958)[2] is an Indian politician from Maharashtra.He is one of the most influential leaders of Indian National Congress in Maharashtra and he is the current PWD Minister of Maharashtra. He also served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state from 8 December 2008 to 9 November 2010. He earlier also served as Minister for Cultural Affairs, Industries, Mines and Protocol in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government.

Ashok Shankarrao Chavan
अशोक शंकरराव चव्हाण
Ashok Chavan
Minister of Public Works Department
(Excluding Public Undertakings)
Government of Maharashtra
Assumed office
30 December 2019
Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray
Preceded byEknath Shinde, Shiv Sena
ConstituencyBhokar
16th Chief Minister of Maharashtra
In office
8 December 2008 – 9 November 2010
GovernorS. C. Jamir
K. Sankaranarayanan
Preceded byVilasrao Deshmukh
Succeeded byPrithviraj Chavan
Minister of Industries, Mines, Protocol, and Cultural Affairs
Government of Maharashtra
In office
1 November 2004 – 20 February 2009
Succeeded byNarayan Rane
ConstituencyMudkhed
Minister of Revenue
Government of Maharashtra
In office
19 October 1999 – 20 October 2004
ConstituencyMudkhed[1]
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office
2014–2019
Preceded byBhaskarrao Bapurao Khatgaonkar
Succeeded byPrataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar
ConstituencyNanded
In office
1987–1989
Preceded byShankarrao Chavan
Succeeded byVenkatesh Kabde
ConstituencyNanded
Personal details
Born (1958-10-28) 28 October 1958
Bombay, Bombay State, British India Present Mumbai, Maharashtra
Political partyIndian National Congress
Spouse(s)Amita Sharma-Chavan
ChildrenSujaya & Sreejaya
ParentsKusum & Shankarrao Chavan
ResidenceMumbai
Alma materHazarimal Jomani College (BSc)
B.Y.K. College of Commerce (MBA)

On 9 November 2010, the Congress Party asked him to resign from office over corruption allegations relating to Adarsh Housing Society scam.[3] In the 2014 general elections, despite the allegations and anti-incumbency wave, he won the Lok Sabha election from his Nanded constituency with a comfortable margin. In 2015, he was appointed as the president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.Chavan lost his Nanded seat in the 2019 Lok sabha election to Pratap Patil Chikhalikar of the BJP. [4]

Chavan belongs to an influential political family based in Nanded district of Maharashtra state. He is the son of Shankarrao Chavan, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra himself; they are the first father–son duo in the state's history to become chief ministers.[5][6] His brother-in-law Bhaskarrao Bapurao Khatgaonkar Patil was a three-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and a three-time MP, and Chavan's wife, Amita is MLA from Bhokar constituency in Nanded for year 2014-19.

Personal life

Chavan graduated in Science and has obtained his Master's in Business Management from Hazarimal Jomani College and B.Y.K. College of Commerce.[7]

Chavan belongs to a political dynasty that includes his father and wife.[8] Chavan's father, Shankarrao Chavan had a long career as a minister and twice, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He had also served as a senior minister in the national government under various Congress governments. Ashok Chavan is married to Ameeta (née Sharma). Ameeta is current member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Bhokar constituency which has previously been represented by both Shankarrao Chavan and Chavan himself. The couple has twin daughters Srijaya and Sujaya.[9]


Political career

He started his political career as General Secretary, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.

In 1987–89, he was elected as Member of Parliament from Nanded Lok Sabha constituency.

In 1992, he was elected as M.L.C to the Maharashtra Legislative Council and later joined as Minister of State for Public works, Urban Development and Home in March 1993. He was the General Secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee from 1995 to 1999.

In 2003, Vilasrao Deshmukh appointed Chavan as Minister for Transport, Ports, Cultural Affairs and Protocol.

In November 2004, he was given the portfolio of Industries, Mining, Cultural Affairs & Protocol in Maharashtra cabinet.[5]

Chief Minister
The Prime Minister , Dr. Manmohan Singh along with the Chief Minister of Gujarat , Shri Narendra Modi , the Chief Minister of Maharashtra , Shri Ashok Chavan and the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal at the signing ceremony of a tripartite MoU for preparation of DPR of Damanganga-Pinjal Link Project and Par-Tapi-Narmada Link Project, in New Delhi on May 03, 2010.

In the aftermath of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Vilasrao Deshmukh took the moral responsibility and offered to resign, which was then accepted by the party and Chavan was elected as Chief Minister of Maharashtra.[10][11]

After winning assembly elections in 2009, Congress President Sonia Gandhi once again nominated Chavan as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Sharad Pawar, the leader of rival coalition partner NCP party, had been lukewarm towards Chavan, after his first choice of union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was ignored well before the race began.[12][13][14]

Congress had clearly plumped for a Maratha to lead the party in the state, and had ignored the NCP view that a non-Maratha should be selected for the position to set right the social combination.

As a result, NCP chose a non-Maratha, Chhagan Bhujbal to occupy the deputy Chief Minister's post and gave the home ministry to Jayant Patil. The latter being a Maratha balanced the NCP's own bid to remain the community's first choice. Chavan was asked to resign as Chief Minister during a meeting with Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, after it emerged that three of his relatives owned apartments in the Adarsh Housing Society which was created specifically to house Indian war veterans in the upmarket Colaba area of Mumbai.[15] He was succeeded by Prithviraj Chavan.

Post Chief Minister

Despite the corruption allegations, the Congress party put him up as a party candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. He won the election by a huge margin. In Maharashtra, Rajiv Satav and Chavan were the only Congress candidates elected.

In 2015, he took over as the chief of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.[16]

Chavan contested the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections from Nanded Constituency but lost the election to BJP's Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar. He is one of the 9 former Chief Ministers of Congress who lost in Lok Sabha 2019 Election.[17]

Controversy, scams and allegations

Apart from the much discussed Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Chavan was accused of using his office to fund his relatives' bank.[18] Recently High court of Maharashtra state denied permission to the agency investigating the Adarsh scam to question Chavan.

In 2009 Assembly Elections, he was accused of hiding expenses on a paid supplement titled Ashok Parva in a leading Marathi daily.[19] However, he denied the allegation by the Election Commission of India of having inserted favourable Paid News in newspapers.[20]

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
SI No. Year Legislative Assembly Constituency Margin Party Post
1. 2009 12th Bhokar 1,07,503 Indian National Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra
2. 2019 14th Bhokar 97,445 Indian National Congress PWD Minister of Maharashtra

References
  1. "Previous MLAs from Mudkhed Assembly Constituency".
  2. "Biodata - Ashok Chavan" (PDF). Pune Hitech. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
  3. "Cong axes Chavan and Kalmadi over corruption allegations" The Hindu, 9 November 2010
  4. "Lok Sabha elections: Ashok Chavan lost Nanded to 15-year jinks...say party workers" (May 23, 2019). Times of India. TNN. 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. "Profile: Ashok Chavan, in father's footsteps". Press Trust Of India. IBN Live (CNN-IBN). 5 December 2008. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
  6. "Government". Government of Maharashtra. Archived from the original on 15 July 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2008.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Kanchan Chandra (28 April 2016). Democratic Dynasties: State, Party and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-107-12344-1.
  9. "Twin daughters, Punjabi wife make up home for Ashok Chavan". Times of India. 8 December 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  10. "Ashok Chavan named Maharashtra CM". Rediff. 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  11. "Ashok Chavan sworn in as Maharashtra CM". Rediff. 8 December 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  12. "Congress retains all three CMs; Khandu, Hooda sworn in". Rediff. 25 October 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  13. "Ashok Chavan frontrunner for CM's post". Rediff. 25 October 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  14. "Chavan is Cong's first choice as Maha CM". Rediff. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  16. "Ashok Chavan new MPCC chief". nagpurtoday.in.
  17. "Ashok Chavan the heavyweight who lost Lok Sabha 2019 election". atrendhub.com.
  18. "Ashok Chavan used his office to fund kins' bank: CAG". The Hindu. 23 April 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  19. "Ashok Chavan faces disqualification in paid news case of 2009". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  20. "Maharashtra CM Chavan Challenges EC on Paid News" The Hindu, 21 July 2010.
Lok Sabha
Preceded by
Shankarrao Chavan		 Member of Parliament
for Nanded
1987 – 1989		 Succeeded by
Venkatesh Kabde
Preceded by
Bhaskarrao Bapurao Khatgaonkar Patil		 Member of Parliament
for Nanded
2014 – 2019		 Succeeded by
Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar
Political offices
Preceded by
Vilasrao Deshmukh		 Chief Minister of Maharashtra
8 December 2008 – 10 November 2010		 Succeeded by
Prithviraj Chavan
Party political offices
Preceded by
Manikrao Thakre		 President of
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
2015 – 2019		 Succeeded by
Balasaheb Thorat
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