Ashok Chavan to continue as Maharashtra Congress chief

Ashok Chavan is likely to continue as the leader of the Congress party in Maharashtra. While the former Chief Minister had offered to resign after the Lok Sabha poll drubbing, sources confirmed that the party’s central leadership is not in favour of major organisational changes ahead of the Assembly polls in the state.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra are due in October. On Saturday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi held meetings with senior Maharashtra Congress leaders, where the strategy for the upcoming polls was discussed.

Following Saturday’s meeting, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is expected to formally authorise Chavan to spearhead seat sharing talks with the Nationalist Congress Party and other like-minded parties. “This is a clear-cut indication that the leadership is not in the mood for any change in leadership in the state ahead of the polls,” said a former Congress minister.

Winning just one out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Congress is still reeling from its worst ever election performance in the state. In an indication of the BJP-Shiv Sena’s dominance in the LS poll, the saffron combined wrested 229 out of the 288 Assembly segments in the state, wresting several of those represented by the Congress and its ally NCP in the legislative Assembly.

“Chavan is well aware of the political equations across Assembly segments in the state. He has been at the helm for over two years now. Any new person will find it challenging given that the polls are just four months away,” said a state Congress leader. Given that the Congress finds itself in doldrums in the state where it was founded, sources also pointed out that other senior leaders in the state are also reluctant to take up the assignment.

After the meeting with Gandhi, Chavan, accompanied by AICC’s (Maharashtra incharge) Mallikarjun Kharge, announced that the party will even reach out to Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi to hold seat-sharing talks. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is a constituent of the VBA. While VBA won one seat in the state in the LS poll, votes polled by its candidates had ensured the defeat of Congress-NCP candidates on several other seats. Chavan, meanwhile, has been holding districtwise reviews of party workers where an assessment of the probable candidate for the concerned assembly segment is also being done. Seat-sharing talks with the NCP are expected to commence after the monsoon session of the assembly ends on July 2.