Ashok Chavan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ashok Chavan

• At the University of Pune, Ashok Chavan led the student organisation before entering the mainstream politics.

• Ashok Chavan contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from the Nanded constituency of Maharashtra on the Indian National Congress ticket, but Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar of the BJP defeated him.

• Under the Sushilkumar Shinde government in Maharashtra, he held various ministries from January 2003 to November 2004, including Co-operation, Marathi Language, Public Health and Family Welfare, Industries, Sanitation, School Education, Water Supply, and Protocol.

• He was the minister of Industries, Textiles, Mining Department, Marathi Language, Ex-Servicemen Welfare, and State Border Defence in the second Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry from 2004 to 2008.

• He was appointed the Minister of Public Works (Excluding Public Undertakings) in the Uddhav Thackeray government on 30 December 2019.

• Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned after the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, following which the Congress party chose Ashok Chavan to take over as Maharashtra’s chief minister on 8 December 2008.

• After the Congress-NCP alliance won the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections, there were rumours that the NCP opposed Chavan’s appointment as chief minister and recommended Sushilkumar Shinde take over as chief minister. However, Sonia Gandhi, the president of the AICC, chose to support Ashok Chavan.

  

• Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, on 12 February 2024, he resigned as an MLA and quit the Congress party; Baba Siddique and Milind Deora had earlier left the party.

• Ashok Chavan became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party on 13 February 2024 in the presence of Devendra Fadnavis. In an interview, speaking about why he decided to quit Congress, he said,
  

  I have been associated with the Congress for a long time, and I felt I should explore options, therefore I decided to quit.”

  

• Apart from owning an LPG distribution company, Ashok Chavan has many other businesses. He has a significant shareholding in Nanded sugar factories, which are owned by Chavan and his family.