Days after Baba Siddique left the Congress to join the Nationalist Congress Party headed by Ajit Pawar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has also decided to sever ties with India’s grand old political party. The son of veteran Congress leader Shankarrao Chavan, Ashok Chavan is expected to join the BJP. His father was the home minister of India when the Babri Masjid was demolished on 6 December 1992.
Chavan took to social media to announce his parting with the Congress party. He wrote, “Today I have resigned from the post of Member of Congress Working Committee of the Indian National Congress Party, membership of Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party and primary membership of the Indian National Congress.”
Accused of corruption in Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Chavan has been rumoured to join the BJP for several months to avoid arrest. He was believed to have betrayed the Congress party in 2022 when the party lost the Rajya Sabha seat due to cross-voting.
The same year, Chavan and his 11 loyalist MLAs did not turn up for the trust vote after Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government was brought down and Eknath Shinde formed a new government with the help of the BJP. Chavan had then claimed that he and his loyalist MLAs were held up in a traffic jam, which prevented them from reaching the assembly.
He had to resign as the chief minister of Maharashtra in 2010. He won the Lok Sabha polls from Nanded in 2014 before being appointed the president of the Maharashtra Congress a year later. He, however, lost his Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Incidentally, his father too had served as the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Earlier Milind Deora and Baba Siddique left the Congress to join the NCP and the Shiv Sena (Shinde) respectively. India goes to polls in the next few weeks and it remains to be seen what impact the departure of these individuals would have on the party’s electoral chances.