A fortnight after the dramatic resignation from his ministership in the Maharashtra cabinet, itself coming on the back of a leaked letter to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, in which he lashed out at Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's ineffective leadership and demanded the mantle of the state Congress leadership for himself, Narayan Rane was eating humble pie on Tuesday.
Congress leader Narayan Rane. PTI
With the Congress unwilling to yield to his demands for a leadership change in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly polls, the Konkan strongman withdrew his resignation as minister, stated that he was making an "adjustment" and claimed he had been assured that he would be given "due respect".
While there had been speculation that he would float a political party of his own, he made no mention of it.
As Firstpost has reported earlier, despite his rebellion call, it was unlikely that the former Shiv Sainik would leave the party -- the Sena had already made it clear that he would not be welcome back into its folds, and the Congress top brass was certainly expected to mollify him, unwilling to suffer another blow ahead of the Assembly elections. Even one dealt by a former Shiv Sainik with a rapidly shrinking personal credibility in the Konkan region.
Rane said he decided to withdraw his resignation after consultations with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary in charge of Maharashtra Mohan Prakash, senior ministers and state party chief Manikrao Thakre.
"They told me due respect would be given to me and promises would be kept," Rane told reporters.
"I will work for the victory of Congress in assembly elections. I did not want to contest the elections myself but the party leaders asked me to contest," he said.
Replying to a question whether he was prepared to face the polls under Chavan, Rane said as head of the government Chavan will lead but at party level it will be a collective leadership.
Only on 22 July, Rane had insisted he would not withdraw his resignation. He had also said the Congress party had promised him chief ministership of the state within six months of his joining the party but a decade later and over three changes in the CMO later, he had not been considered for the job.
There is a possibility that the party will now make him chief of the campaign committee. With seat-sharing talks with the NCP due to start soon, the campaign committee chief's post would be a key one.
According to Congress leaders, the party has been particularly aware that there is an anti-Rane atmosphere in the Konkan region. Elevating him to a bigger post such as MPCC president would likely backfire. “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,” one Congress leader told Firstpost in July.
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.
firstpost
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