Ashok Chavan?s elevation to the chief minister?s chair in Maharashtra was not smooth. After the terrible attacks on Mumbai, the state had been plunged into political turmoil.
When Shivraj Patil quit as Union home minister, sensing the possibility of heads rolling in the state as well, the NCP mounted pressure on ally Congress by asking R R Patil to quit as deputy chief minister. Relations between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had soured long ago.
By all accounts, the NCP saw an opportunity in the aftermath of the terror attack. In all probability, the resignation of R R Patil forced the Congress high command to take cognisance and ask Deshmukh to step down. However, finding a successor was not easy.
After eliminating half a dozen names, the Congress shortlisted two ? former Shiv Sainik Narayan Rane and Ashok Chavan. Rane lobbied hard to further his candidature; his detractors lobbied against him harder. On Friday, the party announced Chavan as Deshmukh?s successor.
Rane?s noisy histrionics ever since have served to draw attention to the markedly different style of the man who pipped him to the post.
A science graduate with an MBA, and son of former Union minister the late S B Chavan, Ashok Chavan is known to be a softspoken person who maintains a low profile.
Throughout his political career?beginning with his days in the Congress?s youth wing in the 1980s?he has remained non-controversial. When his father became chief minister in 1986, he became the vice-president and general secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Yuvak Congress. He graduated to the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee when he was made general secretary in 1995.
The low-profile Chavan was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1987 and nominated as member of the state legislative council in 1992. He was elected as MLA in 1999 and in 2004. As minister, he has handled portfolios like PWD, urban development, revenue, protocol, industries and cultural affairs.
Like other sons of influential Maratha leaders of Maharashtra, he controls a cooperative sugar mill and educational institutions. After his father?s death, Chavan took over the reins of his political legacy in Nanded and the Marathwada region in general?the region to which Vilasrao Deshmukh also belongs.
Chavan and Deshmukh have a longstanding association as Deshmukh was groomed in politics by S B Chavan, an arch rival of Sharad Pawar. However, the rivalry in Marathwada created a rift between Deshmukh and Chavan.
The recent celebrations of the tercentenary of Gur Ta Gaddi in Nanded gurudwara came as a windfall for Chavan. With financial aid from the state and central governments for infrastructure development in Nanded, he emerged as a politician with a bastion of his own? presumably ready to take on higher responsibilities.
Chavan?s critics call him faceless, untried and untested. They point out that with his mild manners and lack of governing skills, he may have difficult days ahead.
Chavan now carries the onerous responsibility of steering the party through these difficult times in Mumbai and the state and leading it in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
