Chavan replaces Chavan as CM of Maharashtra

Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan with the new Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar during the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai 

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's previously greatest disqualification to hold his new job, his lack of experience in state politics, in fact swung things in his favour as the Congress chose him to replace Ashok Chavan. “It is true, I have never been in state politics, but I guess that actually worked in my favour,” he said with a laugh in between answering phone calls congratulating him on his new assignment. After the fiasco over the Adarsh Society scam, Prithviraj Chavan is being sent from Delhi precisely because he is an outsider to the linkages between several Maharashtra politicians and the unique complex of real estate moguls and industrialists who are an integral part of the scam.

One of the most overburdened ministers in the Union government, Chavan also dismisses what was considered his other drawback in his new job, the frayed equations between him and Congress ally Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. The deal between the congress and the NCP saw Chavan's home turf of Satara and Karad go into NCP hands, something he holds close to his heart till today.

“I don't think that is an issue at all. In fact Sharad Pawar called me this morning and I am meeting him,” he said. What about his new deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar? “I dont know him very well, but my attempt will be to carry everyone along,” he said. Chavan's name was apparently the considered choice of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi who felt that Chavan's outsider status and clean image along with his engineering degree and UCLA, Berkeley education was just the right note to strike in the most industrialised state.

Chavan's entry into politics was through the usual route, through his family. In 1991, while Chavan was working on developing an Indian language computer in the US, he met Rajiv Gandhi and took the plunge from the family pocket burrough.