Ashok Chavan Wiki, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan is an Indian politician from Maharashtra and a veteran member of the Indian National Congress; however, on 13 February 2024, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has served as the chief minister of Maharashtra and held various cabinet ministries.

Wiki/Biography

Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan was born on Tuesday, 28 October 1958 (age 65 years; as of 2023) in the Nanded district of Maharashtra. His zodiac sign is Scorpio. In 1975, he completed his schooling at St. Xavier’s High School, Fort, Mumbai. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in science from Hazarimal Jomani College. He then pursued a master’s degree in Business Management at B.Y.K. College of Commerce, Pune.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Weight (approx.): 70 kg

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Ashok Chavan’s father, Shankarrao Chavan, has served as the chief minister of Maharashtra twice. He served as the finance minister of India from 1988 to 1989 and as the home minister of India (twice) in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet. His mother’s name is Kusumbai Shankarrao Chavan.

Wife & Children

In 1982, Ashok Chavan got married to Ameeta Chavan, a politician. She was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Bhokar constituency in 2014. The couple is blessed with twin daughters, Srijaya, and Sujaya.

Religion

Ashok Chavan follows Hinduism.

#WATCH | Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan offers prayers at Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/w6P0FyDzEo

— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2024

Address

1-2-163, Anand Nilayam, Shivaji Nagar,Distt. Nanded- 431602

Signature

Career

Member of Lok Sabha

In 1987, Ashok Chavan contested the by-election of the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency on a ticket of the Indian National Congress party in which he defeated his closest rival, P.Y.Ambedkar, with a margin of 1,11,118 votes. In 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Nanded constituency of Maharashtra on a ticket of the Indian National Congress by defeating D. B. Patil of the Bharatiya Janata Party with a margin of 81,455 votes. In 2019, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Nanded constituency of Maharashtra on a ticket of the Indian National Congress but lost to BJP’s Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar.

Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

In 1992, he was elected as the M.L.C. to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. In March 1993, he was appointed as the Minister of State for Public Works, Urban Development and Home. In 1999, he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections from the Mudkhed constituency on a ticket of the Indian National Congress. From 1999 to 2003, he served as the Minister of Revenue and Protocol in the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet. From January 2003 to November 2004, he held ministries of various departments such as Co-operation, Marathi Language, Public Health and Family Welfare, Industries, Sanitation, School Education, Water Supply, and Protocol under the Sushilkumar Shinde government in Maharashtra.

From 2004 to 2008, he served as the minister of Industries, Textiles, Mining Department, Marathi Language, Ex. Servicemen Welfare, and State Border Defence in the Second Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry. From 8 December 2008 to 10 November 2010, he took charge as the Leader of the House of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. In 2009, he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Bhokar constituency on a ticket of the Indian National Congress. He was then re-elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Bhokar constituency in 2014 and 2019. On 30 December 2019, he took over as the head of the Ministry of Public Works (Excluding Public Undertakings) in the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Party Positions held

In 1986, he took charge as the Vice-President and General Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. He then served as the General Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee from 1995 to 1999. In 2015, he took over as the chief of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. From August 2023 to February 2024, he worked as a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

Chief Minister

On 08 December 2008, Ashok Chavan preceded Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chief minister of Maharashtra after Deshmukh resigned after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. On 07 November 2009, he was sworn in as the 16th chief minister of Maharashtra.

Controversies

Adarsh Housing Society scam

Adarsh Housing Society is a thirty-one-story apartment building situated in Colaba, Mumbai. Originally, the structure was supposed to have housed Kargil War veterans and their spouses. The people who lived in the complex, however, turned out to be bureaucrats and politicians’ relatives who had nothing to do with the Kargil conflict. Three flats in Adarsh Housing Society were allegedly owned by the mother-in-law of the then Maharashtra chief minister, Ashok Chavan. An RTI information disclosed that Chavan gave his approval for 40% of the houses to be sold to civilians. On 7 November 2009, he resigned as the chief minister of Maharashtra amid accusations of corruption following the Adarsh Housing Society Scam. K Sankaranarayanan, the governor of Maharashtra at the time, denied permission to prosecute Chavan in December 2013.

A Sessions court later declined to remove his name from the list of accused in the case. The Bombay High Court upheld the court’s ruling in 2015. The CBI was given permission to prosecute Chavan in 2016 by Governor Vidyasagar Rao of Maharashtra. Chavan, however, moved to the Bombay High Court to overturn this ruling. The Bombay High Court overturned the Governor’s decision on 22 December 2017, ruling that Chavan should not face charges in the case.

Misuse of election expenditure

In 2009, Madhavrao Kinhalkar, a former minister in the Maharashtra government, in a complaint to ECI claimed that Chavan had spent a significant amount of money during the 2009 assembly elections without disclosing this expenditure in his affidavit. Kinhalkar stated that although Chavan’s account indicated an expenditure of ₹ 5,379 on newspaper advertisements, Chavan had spent several crores of rupees on sponsored news. In 2014, Chavan was found guilty by the Election Commission (EC) of giving it false information about election expenditures. ^[1]Mint

Corruption case

In 2013, Kirit Somaiya alleged Ashok Chavan of separating the Mining Portfolio from the Ministry of Industries and retaining it with him for his personal gains. The other top BJP officials further claimed that Chavan reduced the required advance fee that private players were required to pay from 50% to 10% of the mining lease amount. In an interview, Somaiya, while alleging Chavan of doing corrupt practices, said,

Maharashtra Government had procured seven coal blocks from the Central government. While the state government retained three coal blocks for power generation, other four blocks were transferred to Maharashtra State Mineral Corporation (MSMC), which were subsequently allocated to private players. This scam amounts to the tune of Rs 375 crore. Chavan had recommended allocating two coal blocks to Gupta Steel against whom the Centre had already filed an FIR.” ^[2]Business Standard

Encroachment of Land

In June 2015, an RTI activist, Digambar Pajgade, filed a complaint with the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Yavatmal in which he alleged encroachment by the Jawaharlal Darda Education Society on an open public space in Yavatmal. According to the complaint, in the early 1990s, the education society built a massive compound wall and an English-medium school on approximately 1,000 square metres of land that belonged to the area’s plot owners for public utility. The Yavatmal Chief Judicial Magistrate’s decision to declare the encroachments illegal was challenged by Chavan and others, which was later denied by the division bench of Justices A B Chaudhari and P N Deshmukh of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court. ^[3]The Indian Express

Illegal allotment of Petrol Pumps

He was accused of nepotism at the beginning of his political career for allotting petrol pumps to relatives. In 1993, the Supreme Court cancelled the allotment of the petrol pumps to Chavan’s uncle’s son-in-law. ^[4]India Today

Criminal cases against Ashok Chavan

• Charges related to Forgery for the purpose of cheating (IPC Section-468)

• Charges related to Having possession of a document described in Section 466 or 467, knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine (IPC Section-474)

• Charges related to Forgery of record of court or of public register, etc. (IPC Section-466)

• Charges related to the Punishment of criminal conspiracy (IPC Section-120B)

• Charges related to Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record (IPC Section-471)

• Charges related to Punishment for criminal trespass (IPC Section-447)

• Charges related to Public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person (IPC Section-166)

• Charges related to Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (IPC Section-34)

Car Collection

He owns 2 Mahindra Goods Carriers, 1 Bolero Maxi Truck Plus, and 1 Mahindra Pick Up Van.

Assets/Properties

Movable Assets

Cash: Rs. 4,83,465

Deposits in Banks, Financial Institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies: Rs. 1,25,00,000

Bonds, Debentures and Shares in companies: Rs. 52,000

Jewellery: Rs. 48,00,000

Immovable Assets

Agricultural Land: Rs. 2,00,00,000

Non-Agricultural Land: Rs. 4,30,00,000

Commercial Buildings: Rs. 1,97,00,000

Residential Buildings: Rs. 11,50,00,000

Note: The given estimates are according to the year 2019. It excludes the assets owned by his wife and dependents (minor). ^[5]My Neta

Net Worth

Ashok Chavan’s net worth is estimated to be more than rupees 50 crores as per the year 2019. ^[6]India Today

Facts/Trivia

• Ashok Chavan began his political career as a leader of the student wing of the University of Pune.

• Following the Congress-NCP victory in the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the NCP allegedly objected to Chavan’s appointment as chief minister and suggested Sushilkumar Shinde should succeed him. However, AICC president Sonia Gandhi sided with Chavan.
  

  Ashok Chavan with Sonia Gandhi

• On 12 February 2024, he resigned from the primary membership of the Congress party and also as the MLA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after senior leaders like Baba Siddique and Milind Deora also left the party.

• On 13 February 2024, Ashok Chavan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Devendra Fadnavis. In an interview, while talking about his induction into the BJP, he said,
  

  I have quit the Congress Party, as MLA and from all other party posts today. I have broken all my involvement with the party. I have no complaints and till yesterday I worked honestly for the party. I am a born Congressman. I have been associated with the Congress for a long time, and I felt I should explore options, therefore I decided to quit. Today around 12-12:30, I am going to start a new journey of my political career, I am going to join BJP.”

  

  Ashok Chavan (extreme right) formally being inducted into the BJP

• Ashok Chavan is an authorised LPG distributor and is involved in various other businesses. Chavan, along with his family members, own the majority shares of Nanded sugar factories.

• In his leisure time, he enjoys playing table tennis, reading, and travelling.