Ex-CM Ashok Chavan to fight from Bhokar

Mumbai: Former chief minister of Maharashtra and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan is all set to make a comeback to state politics as the party on Sunday fielded him from Bhokar constituency.

In an interview with The Asian Age on Friday night, Mr Chavan had expressed his desire to return to Maharashtra politics.

“If given the opportunity, I will contest the election. Because I have always been active in the state except for my Lok Sabha term between 2014 and 2019,” he had said.

During the interview, he had also touched upon several other issues, including the state of Congress party in Maharashtra.

When asked if the Congress would accept Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s leadership in the Assembly polls, he replied, “It’s coalition. The Congress has its own leadership. We have fought all our elections under the leadership of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Of course, Mr Pawar is a national leader and we respect him. But as far as our party is concerned, our national president is Sonia Gandhi.”

Mr Chavan, a two-time chief minister of Maharashtra, had to resign after his name propped up in the Adarsh society scam.

In 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Nanded, an election that was otherwise dominated by the BJP-Sena alliance.

Mr Chavan added that a collective leadership, involving Congress chief Ms Gandhi and the Pradesh Congress Committee, would run the Congress campaign in the state.

The former chief minister had resigned as the state unit chief after taking responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.