The consolations of Prithviraj Chavan: Maha poll verdict offers hope to former CM

Slated to be the scapegoat of the Congress party’s defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly election, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan emerged victorious from his home constituency of South Karad defeating Vilasrao Undalkar, a Congress party veteran who contested as an Independent, by over 15,000 votes. Then there is this consolation: While the Congress party, which had been in power for three consecutive terms, suffered a huge defeat, it performed much better than exit polls predicted. And it bettered its vote share by 25 percent from the Lok Sabha polls where it suffered a humiliating defeat earlier this year. [caption id=“attachment_1764289” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. AFP[/caption] Losing power is never good news, but for Chavan these numbers offer some measure of redemption, and a rebuttal to those within his own party determined to paint him as solely to blame for a defeat that was all but inevitable. Even before the results were out, the Congress leadership in the state had decided that the fault for the party’s poor performance was to be placed squarely on Chavan. Former Congress president Manikrao Thakre, who resigned on Sunday soon after the early trends indicated a defeat, had earlier this week been quick to blame his CM. “We were projecting Chavan’s clean image despite the continuous tirade by the opposition accusing him of taking slow decisions during his tenure. But, his clean image was hit after he made controversial remarks on the Adarsh scam and his predecessors. The BJP took advantage of it and used his statements in advertisements on the polling day. It sent out a wrong message in the general public,” Thakre told Firstpost. Not many expected Chavan to win from South Karad in his first assembly election, given that his rival Vilasrao Undalkar (denied a ticket this election) had served the constituency for 35 years. He is viewed both outside and inside the party as a Manmohan Singh like figure, a weak figure with a zero popular base. He held no regional support base and is considered by many to be an outsider, given that he has served at the Central government during the erstwhile UPA regime and was sent to the state by party chief Sonia Gandhi to clean-up the Congress’s image after various scams, including Adarsh, had surfaced. Considered to be the party’s cleanest face in the state, Chavan’s role as chief minister had come under severe criticism from his own party members and allies for what they termed as ‘paralysis in decision-making’, with senior party leader Narayan Rane, who suffered a defeat in these polls, threatening to quit the party if Chavan continued as CM. With the defeat of Rane, Chavan is the only Congress leader left standing. As of 7 pm this evening, the Congress party’s tally stood at 42, one seat ahead of the NCP, which has already offered unconditional ‘outside support’ to the BJP. But will the Congress allow Chavan, who is yet to cultivate a strong party organization, to become the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and thereby make him the party’s most prominent face in the state? Or will there be a state-level committee reshuffle, as Thakre had earlier suggested to Firstpost, that will move Chavan out of active state politics and put an already established leader to inspire the rank-and-file? This may well happen, but Chavan’s performance has made the planned unceremonious dumping that much harder. His fortunes seem revived in a manner that seemed impossible even a few days ago. And the former CM who celebrated his victory daubed in colour seems to know that. If Diwali came early to BJP, then Holi seems to have come even earlier for Prithviraj Chavan.