Congress M.L.A.

On his release in 1945, Yeshwantrao was selected as a Congress candidate from Karad for the then Bombay Legislative Assembly and he won that seat by a big margin. On the formation of the Kher Ministry in 1946, he was appointed Parlia­mentary Secretary to the then Minister for Home and Revenue, Mr. Morarji Desai. The two had never met before, but the new relationship soon deepened into friendship. However, it was more on the party political field than on the parlia­mentary that Chavan concentrated. In 1948, he became the General Secretary of the Maharashtra Provincial Congress Committee and in the same year he started a Marathi Daily, "Prakash", from Satara. Earlier also he had run and edited a Marathi Weekly, "Lok Kranti" and had even composed poems for the Chhatrapati Mela in order to arouse political consciousness among the people. After independence he devoted himself more and more to the upliftment of the people in Maha­rashtra and by his work among them endeared himself both to the peasants and the workers. Being genial, calm and good tempered he soon became popular among all sections and by the time Mr. Morarji Desai formed his Government in 1952. Chavan was inevitably marked out for ministerial appointment. He was given the port­folio of Food in which capacity he came into close contact with the late Mr. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai whom he liked and admired. Mr. Kidwai, too, had much regard for Chavan, specially for his straight dealing and honesty of purpose. He publicly praised him for the tact and ability with which he introduced progressive decontrol in the then Bombay State. Later, Chavan was also given the Departments of Local Self-Government and Forests; in addition, he looked after the Com­munity Development Projects. By the time of the next General Elections in 1957, the linguistic agitation had inflamed the whole of Maharashtra and the demand for Samyukta Maharashtra had become incessant. Chavan was in the forefront of the agitation. Meanwhile, moves and counter­moves were being made by the Congress High Command, to solve the problem. In the end, Parliament formed the bilingual State of Bombay comprising of the Marathi-speaking and Gujarati-speaking areas. This was in November 1956: and when Mr. Morarji Desai left the State for the Centre, Chavan was elected as the new leader of the Bombay Legislature Congress Party. Being young and untried people wondered whether the choice was a proper one. Even the Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru, to start with was rather sceptical; it did not take Chavan much time to dispel his sceptism. On three public occasions, therefore, the Prime Minister paid tributes to Chavans' Chief Ministership.