Prithviraj Chavan chosen as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Bellevision Media Network
Bellevision Media Network

New delhi, 10 November 2010: Following the resignation of Ashok Chavan, as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra following the ‘Adarsh Society’ scam, the uncertainty in the state ended when the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced on Wednesday, 10 November 2010  morning that Prithviraj Chavan would be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

As the Congress members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly had expressed their willingness to accept any candidate of the choice of Sonia Gandhi, the President of the AICC as the Chief Minister, the latter selected Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan as the next chief minister of Maharashtra. A one-line resolution was passed by the CLP meeting authorizing Gandhi to pick the new chief minister of the state. Prithviraj Chavan is likely to be sworn in on Thursday, 11 November 2010.

Prithviraj Chavan, who hails from Karad in Maharashtra and has won three Lok Sabha elections. Though he has been a central minister for quite a long time and  has never been in Maharashtra state politics and is more at home with policy and complex issues like the India-US nuclear deal.

A man with clean image and a staunch loyalist of the Gandhi family,  Prithviraj Chavan has been known as a though an efficient administrator who also enjoys a clean image. It feared that being too clean, he  may not have the backing of state legislators. He is considered close to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.

According to Congress sources, hours after Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was asked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to submit his resignation to Governor K Sankarnarayanan, the names that began making rounds for the next Chief Ministership in Maharashtra were those of  Union Ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Sushil Kumar Shinde. However, as Sushil Kumar Shinde’s name also appears in the ‘Adarsh Society’ scam, and the Congress wanted to send the right message across the political circles including that of the opposition, Prithviraj Chavan became  the natural choice of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.