Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan has quit the Congress and is expected to shake hands with the BJP, a party he so fiercely fought on ideological grounds for decades.

Amid rumours of his plan to defect, the party leadership had inducted Chavan into the Congress Working Committee even as senior leaders from Maharashtra felt he could ditch the party anytime. Members of the Congress’s central leadership on Monday talked about Chavan’s troubles that made him vulnerable, without explaining the decision to pamper him despite suspicions.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh wrote on X: “When friends and
colleagues leave a political party that has given them much — perhaps much more than they deserved — it is always a matter of anguish. But to those who are vulnerable, THAT Washing Machine will always prove more attractive than ideological commitment or personal loyalties. These betrayers don’t realise that their exit opens up vast new opportunities to those whose growth they have always stunted.”

Ramesh wondered how these leaders cared so little for ideology and personal
loyalty.

Chavan is the third leader from the Congress to quit in the last one month. While Milind Deora joined the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, Baba Siddique — a popular leader from Mumbai — joined the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP. Sources said a few more leaders were going to defect from the Congress in the coming weeks.

Chavan was removed as Maharashtra chief minister after it was reported that his relatives got flats in the Adarsh Society meant for soldiers. There are also some criminal cases pending against him. Narendra Modi had viciously condemned him for “stealing” flats meant for soldiers, but the Prime Minister has demonstrated the tendency to embrace tainted leaders from all parties.

The son of Congress stalwart S.B. Chavan has a strong influence in the Nanded district and his exit is bound to hurt the party. There is speculation that the BJP could send him to the Rajya Sabha. The BJP has sent another Congress defector, R.P.N. Singh, to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada — both considered close to Rahul Gandhi — too had embraced the BJP.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut expressed shock over Chavan’s exit from the Congress. “It is hard to believe that Ashok Chavan has joined the BJP. He was with us till yesterday and was holding discussions. Like Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, will Chavan also stake claim on the Congress now and get the party symbol? Moreover, will the EC hand the symbol to him? In our country, anything can happen,” he wrote on X in Marathi.

Raut’s acerbic remark is not without basis. Both Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar managed to snatch the party symbol from the earlier leaders, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.