Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan, who resigned from the party on Monday, joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday at BJP state headquarters in Mumbai. Chavan joined the saffron party in the presence of Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Bawankule and Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. The sources said Chavan is likely to get a Rajya Sabha ticket and may file his nomination tomorrow. The announcement by the BJP is likely this evening.
"I am joining the BJP today at its office in Mumbai. Today is the beginning of my new political career," Chavan said.
Asked if he received any calls from senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Chavan evaded a reply.
The former CM, however, maintained that he has not contacted any Congress worker or his supporters to join him during his induction into the BJP.
"It is a matter of happiness that a senior Maharashtra leader - who has been elected to the Maharashtra Assembly and the Lok Sabha and has worked twice as CM - has joined the BJP," said Fadnavis during the press conference.
According to the sources, after Chavan, these MLAs can join the BJP in the coming days:
- Amit Deshmukh
- Dheeraj Deshmukh
- Jitesh Antapurkar
- Kunal Patil
- Sangram Thopate
- Madhavrao Nivruttirao Patil Jawalgaonkar
- Vishwajeet Kadam
In a letter to state Congress president Nana Patole, Chavan (65) said he was quitting the 'Grand Old Party'. He also submitted his resignation as an MLA to Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar. Chavan's exit from Congress comes days after the departure of senior Maharashtra Congress leaders Baba Siddique and Milind Deora.
Reacting to the development, Fadnavis told reporters, “Aagey aagey dekho hota hai kya (wait and watch what happens)."
Chavan, who was recently included in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the son of the former Home Minister Shankarrao Chavan. He represented the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency in 1987 and 2014 but lost the election in 2019 when he was defeated by BJP's Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar. Chavan won the Mudkhed Assembly constituency in 1999 and 2004 and later Bhokar in 2009 and 2019.
Adarsh housing scam
The backdrop of the Adarsh Building scam mentioned in a white paper tabled in Parliament last week, a scandal that led to his resignation as state's Chief Minister in 2010, has drawn attention as a potential factor in his departure, a claim though denied by Chavan. He is an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam wherein a 31-storey posh building in south Mumbai was constructed allegedly on land owned by the Defence Ministry without getting the requisite permissions and clearances.
Chavan is an accused under the provisions of the IPC for criminal conspiracy and cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Some of Chavan's relatives had figured in the list of beneficiaries. CBI later in 2014 sought to delete Chavan's name from the case but this was rejected both by the special CBI court and later by the Bombay High Court in 2015. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court which had in 2018 stayed proceedings in the case.
