New Delhi:
No sooner had Barack Obama left Indian shores and hours before the Winter session of Parliament got underway, Ashok Chavan, who woke up this morning as Maharashtra Chief Minister, became the first head to roll in a Congress clean-up drive.
Chavan has been under a cloud ever since his name cropped up in a Mumbai housing scam, and had offered his resignation on October 30. The resignation was accepted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi today and the hunt is on for his successor.
So who shall be the next Maharashtra CM? Here is a look at the people in contention, as senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and AK Antony head to Mumbai to confabulate with party MLAs.
Here are the four names doing the rounds:
Prithivraj Chavan, Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office.
About him: Prithviraj Chavan is 64 years old and comes from a Marathi family based Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra.
Chavan, who has previously been a Lok Sabha MP, was educated at the prestigious BITS, Pilani in Rajasthan and then at the University of California, Berkley, USA. He describes himself as an Engineer, Industrialist, Political and Social Worker.
Apart from his duties in the PMO, Chavan is also the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Parliamentary Affairs.
ADVANTAGES: Chavan is the chief contender. He has no links to the Adarsh housing scam that saw Chavan topple and has had the names of many senior leaders crop up. Chavan has a clean Image and is close to the Congress high command
DISADVANTAGES: He is combative with ally Nationalist Congress Party, which is part of the government in Maharashtra. Also, he does not have a mass base.
Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Power Minister
About him: Shinde, 69, is a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He was also the first Dalit CM of the state. Shinde was a policeman who quit the force to join politics and has been a Congressman for long. Shinde too is a Rajya Sabha MP.
Shinde has served as Governor and even contested elections for the post of Vice-President in 2002. He lost to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat of the NDA.
ADVANTAGES: Shinde is a former Chief Minister and is welll-versed in Maharashtra politics.
DISADVANTAGES: Adarsh Society got fake environmental clearance and 51 extra flats during Shinde's tenure; One of his aides reportedly has a flat in the Adarsh Housing Society. Shinde has defends hinslf saying, "I own no benami property. When I was CM I signed many files. This happened to be one.''
Another disadvantage is that as a Dalit face Shinde is not acceptable to the Maratha lobby.
Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, Maharashtra Congress leader
About him: Seventy-eight-year old Balasaheb Vikhe Patil has been a Lok Sabha MP and a Minister of State at the Centre, apart from having held many positions in the state Congress.
ADVANTAGES: He is an experienced administrator, has a strong mass base in Ahmednagar. That he has been part of the union cabinet is also seen as an advantage.
DISADVANTAGES: He had switched to the Shiv Sena for a while and was a minister in the NDA Cabinet.
Balasaheb Thorat, Maharashtra School Education Minister
About him: Thorat, who is backed by Ashok Chavan's predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh, has a clean image in the state politics. He has been an MLA since 1985 and a cabinet minister for the last 11 years. He is known to be a staunch loyalist of Congress and the Gandhi family and has played a leading role Maharashtra's co-operative movement.
He is far more low profile than the other men in the fray and is best known in recent times for angering environmentalists by flouting rules when he entered a tiger's cage in Nagpur last year.
ADVANTAGES: Thorat is a Congress loyalist and has a clean image
DISADVANTAGES: Too low profile
