Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday chose Mr Prithviraj Chavan to be Maharashtra’s next chief minister after Mr Ashok Chavan resigned in the midst of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam in Mumbai that tarnished the image of top party leaders in the state.

Mr Chavan’s nomination to the top post could change the political game in a state that saw the end of one-party rule in 1995 when the era of coalition governments began. Mr Chavan’s priority is to bring the Congress back to power on its own, and, in the changing scenario, western Maharashtra could witness a fight for space between the state’s ruling allies — the Congress and the NCP.
His family has been known as staunch loyalists of the Gandhi-Nehru family. While his father, the late D.R. Chavan, was a minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi Cabinets, his mother, the late Premalakaki, had remained with Indira Gandhi in the post-Emergency days and the 1978 Congress split. She was also Maharashtra PCC chief.
Mr Prithviraj Chavan’s nomination and the elevation of NCP leader Ajit Pawar as a deputy chief minister are significant developments — both belong to the same caste (Maratha) and come from the same region (western Maharashtra) and this could send the wrong message to other castes and communities in the state.
The low-profile Mr Chavan is seen as a highly qualified person capable of leading the state and reviving the party in the NCP strongholds. He is an engineer by profession and studied at BITS Pilani (Rajasthan) and the University of California at Berkeley.
He will also be the first Maharashtra chief minister to have no experience in the state legislature, local bodies or cooperative sector. He has worked at the national level in the party, in Parliament and in government for nearly two decades. Mr Chavan has handled party affairs in Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir as an AICC general secretary and worked closely with the Prime Minister in the PMO and other ministries.
Despite being in power for long, and being born in a political family, Mr Prithviraj Chavan has neither opened educational institutions nor has been associated with sugar factories, like many politicians in the state. These two sectors have emerged as power centres in Maharashtra and control state politics.
Mr Chavan will be the “fourth Chavan” — after the late Y.B. Chavan, late S.B. Chavan and Mr Ashok Chavan — and the 22nd chief minister to lead Maharashtra. “Congress president Sonia Gandhi has chosen Prithviraj Chavan as the Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party leader,” Union finance minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday morning.
In Mumbai, Mr Prithviraj Chavan and Mr Ajit Pawar, accompanied by their state party presidents, met Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayanan at 10.30 pm on Wednesday. Mr Chavan and Mr Pawar will be sworn in at Raj Bhavan at 4.30 pm on Thursday.
Political activity in Mumbai gathered momentum immediately after Mr Mukherjee announced Mr Chavan’s name as the new Maharashtra CM in New Delhi on Wednesday. State
Congress leaders Harshwardhan Patil, Kripashankar Singh, Naseem Khan, Ashish Kulkarni and Sanjay Dutt met state NCP chief Madhukar Pichad at around 11 am and made a formal request for the NCP’s support to Mr Chavan’s government. The NCP also submitted its letter of support to the governor.
Later, a meeting of the NCP Legislature Party, presided over by Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel was held at its headquarters in Mumbai. It elected Mr Ajit Pawar, 51, as the leader to replace Mr Chhagan Bhujbal. NCP observers claimed that the decision was taken unanimously. Mr Bhujbal proposed Mr Pawar’s name and state home minister R.R. Patil seconded it. “Mr Pawar is a senior leader, he has been an MLA for 20 years, of which he has been a minister for 17. He will do good work,” Mr Praful Patel said, adding it was not as per any formula but was a contentious decision.
“Ajitdada has done good work. He is young and the party needs him to be its leader. I have been DCM twice now, so I thought of stopping this time and suggested his name,” Mr Bhujbal said. However, when asked about his plans, Mr Bhujbal said only time would tell what oath he takes next.
On his part, Mr Pawar said he would work towards equal growth of all regions of the state. “I have been here for 20 years and acquired complete knowledge of the situation in the state. It is true that both the CM and the DCM are from western Maharashtra. But this does not mean that other regions will be ignored. I will try to achieve balanced growth of all the regions,” he said.
Mr Ajit Pawar is the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and is emerging as a power centre in the state. He is known for his grip over the administration and for his organisation-building ability in Maharashtra.
In New Delhi, Mr Sharad Pawar said the choice of Mr Prithivraj Chavan was a “good selection”, also observing that he was a “balanced” man.
Mr Chavan, who has been the high command’s nominee, called on Mrs Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence in New Delhi early on Wednesday morning. Mr Mukherjee and defence minister A.K. Antony joined them later.
After the announcement by Mr Mukherjee, Mr Chavan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shortly before he left for Seoul to attend the G-20 summit and submitted his resignation as minister of state in the PMO. Besides, he was also heading five departments as a Union minister. “I am extremely grateful to the Congress leadership for having entrusted the responsibility to me. I am accepting it with all humility,” Mr Chavan said.
A sitting Rajya Sabha member, he has yet to decide whether he would like to contest the Assembly byelection or would prefer to become a member of the state Legislative Council. He also had a nearly one-hour one-on-one meeting with Mr Sharad Pawar in Parliament House on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Prithviraj Chavan said leading Maharashtra is a “great responsibility” and that he would try to do his best. “I will try to take everybody with me together.”
He also said he was sure the Congress-NCP coalition government would “work smoothly” and try to make Maharashtra a “pre-eminent” state. He said he would speak to the leaders of the coalition partners. Mr Chavan has been a steadfast opponent of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.