The Congress on Wednesday named union minister of state for administrative reforms, personnel and public grievances Prithviraj Chavan as the chief minister of Maharashtra after Ashok Chavan resigned from the post on Tuesday following charges of corruption.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi has chosen Prithviraj Chavan as the Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party leader,"  senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after meeting Gandhi.

The Mahrashtra CLP had left the choice to chief Sonia Gandhi, and it was being widely speculated that the union minister will be named for the post. Chavan is seen as being close to the Gandhi family apart from being a trusted aide of the prime minister Manmohan Singh in his capacity as MoS to the PMO.

Chavan, a three-time MP, seems to have been the frontrunner for the post early on after Ashok Chavan's resignation, despite two-time chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat being in the fray.

Sonia's choice could also have been spurred by the party's need to whitewash its image after the repeated attacks from opposition in the backdrop of various scams that its leaders or allies are supposedly involved in. The former chief minister Chavan himself is allegedly involved in the Adarsh Housing Society scam in which land in Colaba, a posh Mumbai Locality, meant for widows of Kargil soldiers was given away to a private property developer.