Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan (born 28 October 1958) is an Indian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

from Maharashtra. He is one of the most influential leaders of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

in Maharashtra. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state from 8 December 2008 to 9 November 2010. Also, he has served as Minister for Cultural Affairs, Industries, Mines and Protocol in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government and he is also the former PWD Minister of Maharashtra. On 9 November 2010, the Congress Party asked him to resign from office over corruption allegations relating to Adarsh Housing Society scam. In the 2014 general elections, despite the allegations and anti-incumbency wave, he won the Lok Sabha election from his

Nanded Nanded is a city in Maharashtra state, India. It is the tenth largest city in the state and the seventy-ninth most populous city in India. It is the second largest city in Marathwada region. It is the district headquarters of Nanded distric ...

constituency with a comfortable margin. In 2015, he was appointed the president of

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (or Maharashtra PCC) is the state unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of Maharashtra. The head office of the organization is situated in Dadar, Mumbai and administrative office in Colaba ...

. Chavan lost his Nanded seat in the 2019 Lok sabha election to Pratap Patil Chikhalikar of the BJP. Chavan belongs to an influential political family based in

district of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

state. He is the son of

Shankarrao Chavan Shankarrao Bhavrao Chavan (14 July 1920 – 26 February 2004) was an Indian politician who served twice as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1975 until 1977 and from 13 March 1986 until 26 June 1988. He was Finance Minister of India from 1988 ...

, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra himself; they are the first father–son duo in the state's history to become chief ministers. 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 years 2014-19.

Personal life

Chavan did his schooling at the

St. Xavier's High School, Fort , motto_translation = Launch out into the deep , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , denomination = Jesuits , authority = Department of Education, Maharashtra , established = , status = , closed = , director = Fr ...

. He graduated in Science and has obtained his Master's in Business Management from Hazarimal Jomani College and B.Y.K. College of Commerce. Chavan belongs to a political dynasty that includes his father and wife. Chavan's father,

had a long career as a minister and was 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.

Political career

Organisational

He started career as student leader of

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

occupying post of University Representative (UR). He started his political career in

Congress Party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

as General Secretary,

Pradesh Congress Committee from 1995 to 1999. President:

from 2014 to 2019.

Electoral politics

In 1987–89, he held post of 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. 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.

As a cabinet minister

* 2003: Transport Minister. * 2019: Sworn in as Cabinet Minister in

Uddhav Thackeray Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (Marathi pronunciation: d̪ʱːəʋ ʈʰaːkɾeː born 27 July 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022. He was also the president of Shiv Sena prior to ...

's Ministry.

Tenure as Chief Minister of Maharashtra

In the aftermath of the

November 2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from Pakistan, c ...

, 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. After winning assembly elections in 2009, Congress President

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

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. Congress had clearly plumped for a

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

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 Chhagan Bhujbal (born 15 October 1947) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra. Currently he is Member of 14th Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra from Yeola Assembly. He also served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 18 October ...

to occupy the deputy Chief Minister's post and gave the home ministry to

Jayant Patil Jayant Rajaram Patil (born 16 February 1962) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He has been representing Islampur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for more than 3 decades. He was the Cab ...

. 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,

, 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 Colaba (; or ISO: Kolābā) is a part of the city of Mumbai, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other three are Worli, Bandra and Malabar Hill. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Kolbhat ...

area of Mumbai. He was succeeded by

Prithviraj Chavan Prithviraj Chavan () (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Chavan is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and University of Cali ...

Post Chief Minister

Despite the corruption allegations, the Congress party put him up as a party candidate for the

2014 Lok Sabha Elections General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

. 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

. 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.

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. 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. However, he denied the allegation by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

of having inserted favourable Paid News in newspapers."Maharashtra CM Chavan Challenges EC on Paid News"
''The Hindu'', 21 July 2010.

Legislative assembly election's record

References

External links

Biodata
* Official Website
Ashok Chavan

Biodata On Ourneta.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavan, Ashok 1958 births Living people People from Nanded Chief Ministers of Maharashtra Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra India MPs 1984–1989 Marathi politicians Maharashtra MLAs 2009–2014 Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra India MPs 2014–2019 Chief ministers from Indian National Congress People from Marathwada Corruption in Maharashtra