New Delhi: Less than five months into the second test of his political career, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan failed to deliver for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the high-stakes battle for the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency.

Chavan was unable to turn the tide in favour of the BJP candidate, Santukrao Hambarde, who lost the critical bypoll in a major setback for the party, which hoped to regain the constituency after losing it in the constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.

Vasantrao Chavan had defeated the BJP’s Pratap Patil Chikhalikar by a significant margin of 59,442 votes in the Lok Sabha elections in a major embarrassment for Ashok Chavan, who wields immense clout in Nanded district.

However, there were also two victories in the assembly polls that could help salvage Ashok Chavan’s prestige. His daughter daughter Sreejaya Chavan made her political debut from the Bhokar assembly segment and won by 50,551 votes. Ashok Chavan had previously represented the segment, as had his grandfather and mother.

In another seat, Deglur, Chavan’s protege Jitesh Antapurkar contested on a BJP ticket against the Congress’ Nivratrao Komdiba Kamble and won by 42,999 votes.

Ashok Chavan, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP in February, was seen as a prize catch for the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections and was expected to bolster the party’s fortunes in the Marathwada region.

He spearheaded the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign, but the party suffered a big setback. Chikhalikar, who had previously defeated Chavan in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, lost the Lok Sabha polls despite the former chief minister switching sides from the Congress to the BJP.

Riding on issues like the Maratha agitation, farmers’ distress, and a strong consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, the Congress not only won Nanded but also helped the MVA defeat the BJP in four other seats in the Marathwada region. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance suffered a major blow, losing seven Lok Sabha seats in this region.

“Chavan was a prized catch, as the BJP was desperate to maintain its hold in Nanded and the Marathwada belt in the Lok Sabha elections. However, Chavan did not perform to central expectations,” said a BJP functionary.

“It was felt that the Constitution-change narrative and Dalit-Muslim-Maratha polarisation dented the Mahayuti not only in Nanded but in other areas too. Nanded has a concentration of OBC, Dalit and Muslim vote banks. Winning Nanded was crucial. A major disadvantage for the BJP in Maharashtra is the lack of Maratha leadership to counter Pawar. Chavan fits into the BJP’s lineup for Maratha leadership.”

Change of strategy

The BJP changed its strategy after the setback based on Ashok Chavan’s suggestions and opted for a fresh face in place of Chikhalikar, who instead contested the Loha assembly seat in Nanded from Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.

The BJP fielded Hambarde, its district president and elder brother of Congress MLA Mohan Hambarde, who is running for re-election from Nanded South on a Congress ticket.

The decision sparked controversy, with Mohan Hambarde reacting sharply during the campaign on the decision to field his brother for the bypoll. “The BJP is known to break political parties. Now, the BJP has committed the sin of breaking my family by targeting my home. But people of the constituency are smart and know well whom to side with,” he said.

The Congress, meanwhile, fielded the late MP’s son, Ravindra Chavan, who manages prominent educational institutions in the area.

After Vasantrao Chavan’s death in September, Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, visited Nanded and pledged to back Ravindra as the party’s candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll.

The Congress was banking on a sympathy wave, along with issues like agrarian distress and Maratha-Muslim polarisation, to win this election.

The BJP, on the other hand, inducted Ashok Chavan into the party in February, despite years of targeting him over the Adarsh ‘scam’. Betting on Ashok Chavan’s influence in Nanded, the BJP aimed to leverage his presence not just in the Lok Sabha bypoll but also in the upcoming assembly elections.

For over five decades, Nanded has been a stronghold of the Chavan family, and until his defection to the BJP, the Gandhi family always supported Ashok Chavan as his father, S.B. Chavan, a former chief minister, was a loyalist of Indira Gandhi.

Although Ashok Chavan lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his assembly seat five months later. In the 2019 assembly elections, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance won five out of nine assembly seats in Nanded district, while the Congress got the rest.

Chavan’s prestige at stake 

Ashok Chavan, who led the Congress government between 2008 and 2010, and his father S.B. Chavan are the only father-son duo in Maharashtra politics to both sit in the CM’s chair.

S.B. Chavan, a lawyer by qualification, entered state politics in 1956 as part of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The very next year, he was elected to the state assembly from Bhokar in Nanded district and continued to serve as an MLA until 1980.

He first served as the chief minister from 1975 to 1977 during the Emergency and then again from 1986 to 1988. He was the Union home minister when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.

Over the years, Maharashtra’s Nanded district became a bastion of the Chavan family with Ashok Chavan contesting his first election from the Nanded parliamentary constituency in 1987.

Today, several members of the Chavan family are active in electoral politics in Nanded district. Ashok Chavan’s wife Ameeta won the 2014 state assembly poll from Bhokar, which he contested and won in 2019.

Ashok Chavan’s now estranged brother-in-law Bhaskar Khatgaonkar was also an MP and his daughter is the third generation to enter politics.

Ashok Chavan started his career as a Youth Congress worker. He has served as an MP, MLA and MLC, and has been part of multiple state cabinets holding portfolios such as urban development, home, transport, cultural affairs, industries and mining.

In 2008, he was elevated to the position of Maharashtra chief minister after the incumbent Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Ashok Chavan led the Congress-NCP alliance, going into the 2009 assembly election in a pre-poll alliance with the NCP. The alliance won 82 of Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats, with the NCP winning 62.

The alliance formed a stable government with Chavan returning as the chief minister, but his tenure was short-lived as the Maratha leader had to resign following a controversy related to his alleged involvement in Mumbai’s Adarsh Housing Society scandal.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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