Ashok Chavan, who served as chief minister of Maharashtra for nearly two years, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Chavan, who is currently PWD minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government, tested positive on Sunday. HuffPost India quoted Congress sources as saying that Chavan was asymptomatic and it was unclear how he contracted COVID-19. Chavan is in his hometown of Nanded and could be shifted to a hospital in Mumbai, according to HuffPost India.
Chavan is the second minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government to contract COVID-19. Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad had contracted COVID-19 in late April and recovered.
Chavan was appointed chief minister by the Congress in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008. He was forced to resign in 2010 after his name cropped up in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Chavan is the second high-profile Congress leader based in Maharashtra to test positive for COVID-19 in the past few days. Last week, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Maharashtra has been the state worst affected by COVID-19 in India. Until Monday morning, it had reported 50,231 cases of COVID-19 and 1,635 deaths.