Prithviraj Chavan

Prithviraj Dajisaheb Chavan
Chavan in 2009
17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra
In office 11 November 2010 – 28 September 2014
Preceded by	Ashok Chavan
Succeeded by	President's rule
Leader of the House Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 11 November 2010 – 26 September 2014
Speaker	Dilip Walse-Patil
Preceded by	Ashok Chavan
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office
In office 22 May 2004 – 25 September 2010
President	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Pratibha Patil
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Ministry	Parliamentary Affairs Department of Personnel and Training Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 13 March 2002 – 20 September 2010
Constituency	Maharashtra
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 3 May 1991 – 20 June 1999
Preceded by	Premala Chavan
Succeeded by	Shriniwas Patil
Constituency	Karad
Member of Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 19 October 2014 – 23 November 2024
Preceded by	Vilasrao Balkrishna Patil
Succeeded by	Atulbaba Suresh Bhosale
Constituency	Karad South
Personal details
Born	(1946-03-17) 17 March 1946 (age 78) Indore, Indore State, British India (present-day Madhya Pradesh, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Satvasheela Chavan ​ (m. 1976)​
Residence(s)	Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra
Alma mater	BITS, Pilani (B.E.) University of California, Berkeley (M.S.)

Prithviraj Chavan (Marathi pronunciation: [prut̪ʱʋiːɾaːd͡ʑ t͡səʋʱaːɳ]) (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2010 to 2014. Chavan is a graduate of BITS Pilani and University of California, Berkeley in mechanical engineering. He spent time working in the field of aircraft instrumentation and designing audio recorders for anti-submarine warfare in the US before returning to India and becoming an entrepreneur in 1974. Referred to in the media as a technocrat with a clean, non-controversial image, a low-profile leader. Chavan served as the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions. Chavan was also General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), in-charge of many states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh.

Chavan was drawn into politics after meeting with Rajiv Gandhi. He has been involved in the Indian National Congress bureaucracy for most of his adult life, notably as a member of the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the India's Parliament) and later architect of the civil nuclear liability bill. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 and followed it up in subsequent elections. Chavan held five portfolios in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government that includes the ministry of science and technology. He became chief minister of Maharashtra in 2010 at the insistence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi succeeding unrelated Ashok Chavan. He resigned as the chief minister of Maharashtra after the ruling NCP-Congress alliance split in the state.

He contested the 2024 legislative assembly elections from the Karad South constituency but lost to Dr. Atulbaba Suresh Bhosale of the BJP.