Former CM Narayan Rane quits Congress

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, September 21

Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane, on Thursday announced his resignation from the Congress Party.

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Addressing a press conference in his stronghold Kudal in Sindhudurg district, Rane said he had submitted his resignation from the state Legislative Council to the Speaker at 2.25 pm, after which he faxed his letter quitting the party to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “I will now go on a statewide tour which will start from Nagpur and announce my next decision after Navratri,” Rane said.

Rane, who joined the Congress after quitting the Shiv Sena 12 years ago, said he was “humiliated” by senior leaders like Ahmed Patel and Ashok Chavan and was denied the post of Chief Minister, which was promised to him. “I had joined the Congress after they promised to make me Chief Minister in six months’ time,” he told reporters.

The pugnacious leader who has built a base for himself in the Konkan region said he would now work to damage both the Shiv Sena and the Congress in Maharashtra. “The entire district committee of the
Congress is leaving with me,” Rane said. State Congress president Ashok Chavan had last weekend dissolved the Sindhudurg unit of the party apprehending defection of the entire unit.

Narayan Rane had succeeded Manohar Joshi as Chief Minister in 1999 and held the post for eight months when the Shiv Sena and the BJP were in power between 1994 and 1999.

Though it is widely speculated that Rane will join the BJP, he has so far refused to confirm or deny any such move. “There are vacancies for me everywhere, including the Shiv Sena. But I do not want to join that party,” Rane had told a television channel earlier this week.

The Shiv Sena, which is part of the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, is upset at the BJP’s proposed move to induct Rane into its fold. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at a meeting with senior
leaders earlier this week had threatened to pull out of the government.

Rane, however, challenged the Shiv Sena to quit the government. “They are staging of drama threatening to quit the government but they want to enjoy the privileges of power,” Rane said.

According to sources Rane is still bargaining for several of his associates to be accommodated in the BJP’s power structure. While his younger son Nitesh is an MLA from the Congress party, his older son is
a former MP.