Maharashtra: Why Cong will woo Narayan Rane with campaign chief's post

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a report published on 20 July, before Narayan Rane quit the Maharashtra government. Konkan strongman and senior Congress leader in Maharashtra Narayan Rane may have raised the political pitch in the state with his open rebellion against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday when he quit his ministerial post, but he is unlikely to leave the Congress party, given the existing political scenario in the state. In fact, all evidence points to the Congress top brass eventually mollifying him, unwilling to suffer another blow ahead of Assembly elections, even one dealt by a former Shiv Sainik with a rapidly shrinking personal credibility in the Konkan region. [caption id=“attachment_1624801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narayan Rane. Ibnlive[/caption] According to senior Congress leaders, with Rane’s attempt to build pressure on the party high command to remove Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan failing, he has been looking for some kind of face-saving consolation. Rane is now likely to be appointed as head of the Congress’s election campaign committee. Once Rane manages to get this post, he would be part of key seat sharing talks with the NCP, making him a key player in the alliance. On Thursday, Rane announced that he would resign from the state cabinet on Monday though he declined to spell out the reasons for his move. On Monday, he kept his promise. But before that, over the weekend, Rane spoke to reporters in his hometown of Kankavli. He trained his guns on the chief minister once again, and said the Assembly elections results would go the same way as the Lok Sabha poll numbers. The present leadership is not capable of winning an election, he said. Having resigned on Monday, he repeated himself, but added that he’s open to serving the party as either Maharashtra Congress chief or as campaign committee chief. The Industries minister’s announcement is certainly a bolt for the Maharashtra Congress, which is yet to recover from the Lok Sabha poll debacle. Rane has been saying he would not leave the party, but the rebellion is brazen anyway. According to Congress leaders, the party is quite aware that there is an anti-Rane atmosphere in the Konkan region. Elevating him is not likely to help the party much in the coming election. “Still, the party does not want to lose a leader like Rane in the present scenario. It will try to pacify Rane to retain him,” said one Congress leader. The Congress high command sent state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre and former Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh to pacify Rane late on Thursday night. However, sources close to the development said that the meeting was a mere formality and bore no fruit – Rane was adamant about bagging a key party post. The leader, who quit the Shiv Sena in 2005, has been in rebellion mode since May. On 16 May, Rane quit as minister after his son Nilesh Rane, the sitting MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency, lost to Shiv Sena’s Vinayak Raut in the Lok Sabha polls, following a revolt by a section of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers. One senior Congressman said Rane resigned to put pressure on the central leadership to remove Chavan after the Congress’s embarrassing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. “He did it with an eye on the top post,” said the leader. Rane’s resignation was however rejected and he was asked to continue as minister. Subsequently, Rane personally met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to press for Prithviraj Chavan’s removal. In a two-page letter to Gandhi, Rane stated that the Congess would be completely wiped out in the upcoming Assembly election in Maharashtra if the party contests elections under his leadership. However, to his surprise, Gandhi asked Chavan to continue as CM and to lead the party in the state for the Assembly election. The truth is that Rane’s control over Konkan has been diminishing. Not only did son Nilesh lose the recent general election, but the Congress has also suffered a series of setbacks in local body polls in the region over the pats two years. Rane appears to now be demanding that the Congress leadership in the state be vested in him – but he is neither the power centre he was nor is the party high command expected to publicly acknowledge the failure of the CM and MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre by giving either post to a rebel minister. On Sunday, Thakre spoke to reporters and pointed out that Rane, who is now claiming that he has been ignored by the high command, was in fact given top berths in the government. Still, while there is widespread belief in the Maharashtra Congress that Rane’s rebellion will yield nothing, the party is also unlikely to let his festering discontent grow in the run-up to elections. Party president Sonia Gandhi is now reportedly stepping in to resolve the crisis. In a smart move, meanwhile, amid speculation that Rane was weighing his options, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray announced last week that neither the Sena nor the BJP would welcome him – nobody who troubled Balasaheb will be allowed to return to the fold, Uddhav said, indicating that he was referring to the former Sainik Rane. “Uddhav’s emotional pitch has blocked Rane’s entry into the saffron alliance. Rane now has no option but to stay within the Congress or launch his own political outfit. However, if he does that at this juncture, it will be nothing short of political suicide,” said a senior Congress leader. Some Rane aides also said that the Konkan strongman would tour the region and consolidate his family’s prospects after his son failed miserably in the Lok Sabha elections. BJP leaders said that their leadership is also quite aware of the political atmosphere in the Konkan region against Rane. “So, it is not going to help us anyway. At the same time, we don’t want any issues with our old ally Shiv Sena,” said a BJP leader adding that Rane also doesn’t have the backing of Congress MLAs. A section of congress leaders also said that former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan would be upset if Rane is made the poll campaign chief since he has been eyeing the post for a long time. “If Chavan is kept out of the party’s scheme of things, there will be no representation of the Marathwada region in the party. The high-command should take this into account too before bowing to Rane’s pressure,” the leader said. But for now, it appears that the party is keen to woo the angry minister, so a post that Rane feels befits his stature could just be offered – and that would be in all likelihood campaign committee chief.