Sonia Gandhi must hold CWC poll for new leadership: Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan

Former CM Prithviraj Chavan entered politics on Rajiv Gandhi's request. But his family was known to be Nehru-Gandhi loyalists for long, with father Anandrao and mother Premalakaki both representing the Karad Lok Sabha constituency on Congress tickets. Chavan, a three-time LS MP from Karad, was minister of state in the PMO.

During his four-year tenure as CM from 2010, he was known as 'Mr Clean' , but it was also during this period that relations between Congress and NCP soured. Currently, Chavan is the only prominent Congress leader who has kept the party alive in NCP-dominated western Maharashtra . His followers say his personality is his biggest asset, which will ensure his victory in the assembly elections for the Karad South seat in Satara district. Excerpts...


There is a clamour for restructuring of Congress following two successive debacles in LS elections. Rahul Gandhi has resigned. Doesn't the party need to introspect at the organizational and ideological levels?

There is no need for any introspection at the ideological level. Congress has firm and strong ideological roots, which are time-proven. As far as organizational restructuring is concerned, Sonia Gandhi has agreed to hold the post of party president as a stopgap arrangement. She should conduct an election for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at the earliest, which can see the emergence of a new leadership.

Your party colleague, Sushilkumar Shinde, has said both Congress and NCP are "tired" and "exhausted". He is in favour of the two parties merging...

I don't want to comment on this, but the statement is unfortunate. One must remember that NCP was formed after the issue of leading Congress at the national level came up. But since then, the two parties have developed a working relationship.

You had an opportunity to fight the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll, but decided to contest the assembly elections instead. Why?

The offer to contest the LS bypoll was made by Sharad Pawar, who had also talked to Sonia Gandhi about it. Meanwhile, a meeting of Congress workers in Karad turned into a referendum that I should contest the assembly elections. I told Pawar that I was unfamiliar with three assembly segments in the Satara LS constituency, which were represented by NCP...When Ajit Pawar resigned, the proposal was withdrawn. I guess somebody must have asked why the party should give up the seat to Congress. I had suggested that Pawar himself contest the bypoll, but he was not ready.

It is said that you had taken a strong decision about irregularities in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, which soured the relationship between Congress and NCP. What happened?

Then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had called me saying there was a problem with the bank. I suggested that the RBI send its officials to have joint meetings with state cooperative officials. MSC Bank was functioning without an RBI licence for the past 50 years and the cooperative department had ignored this.

I decided to apply for a licence for the bank, but was told that any institution incurring losses or having negative worth cannot be granted one. The bank had by then accumulated losses of Rs 11,000 crore. As I was keen to save the bank, Rajan suggested that I supersede the board of directors... I appointed two administrators. The bank made profits of Rs 700 crore within three years. However, all these developments were interpreted politically.

Several Congress leaders were keen on having an alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). How do you expect these parties to perform?

It is a fact that VBA's performance affected Congress in the LS elections. Prakash Ambedkar's social engineering theory of bringing together Dalits, Muslims and OBCs had the potential of destabilising the political foundation. But it did not happen. VBA's performance will not be like what it was during the LS polls. About MNS, I feel no political space can accommodate two parties with the same ideology.

I also believe that no political trend continues for long. BJP might have won the LS polls, but the assembly election results will be different. We have examples like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand in the recent past.

Your name came up as a possi- ble AICC president when Rahul Gandhi resigned. Is that true?

Nothing of that sort happened. Nobody asked me anything nor did I talk to anyone on the issue.