MUMBAI: Upset that higher ups of the Congress party have been cold to his complaints Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has indicated he may leave the party and team up with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Rane submitted his resignation letter to Ahmad Patel, Congress party treasurer, on Thursday, to be forwarded to Congress President Sonia Gandhi when she returns from Beijing on Monday.
Rane does not have many options left. He cannot return to his parent organization -— Shiv Sena — and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar would never pamper him as he has his nephew, State Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar.
“I’m firm and adamant on my resignation,” Rane told Arab News. “It is not possible for me to work in the state Cabinet under the leadership of Vilasrao Deshmukh. The entire administration is complacent. I don’t want to be part of a government which cannot address people’s concerns. And the Congress cannot win elections under the leadership of Deshmukh.”
Rane said that he would not continue in the Democratic Front government under the leadership of Deshmukh. Rane’s resignation will not be valid until Congress forwards it to the chief minister and gets the governor’s consent. The resignation would be discussed only after Sonya Gandhi’s return to Delhi from Beijing on Monday.
Rane seems to be pressuring Congress leadership, which is unlikely to concede to his demand that Deshmukh be removed, as this time there is growing pressure within the Congress not to buckle under Rane’s threat and to instead accept his resignation.
Top leaders within the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) are not sympathetic to Rane and argue that he may have exposed Deshmukh but has done more damage to the Congress organization.
However, to pacify him, the most the party can do is to make him the chairman of the election campaign committee for the Maharashtra Assembly polls provided he stops his anti-Deshmukh tirade.
