By Anirudh Singla
On Thursday, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane, formally announced his resignation from the Indian National Congress after months of constant speculation. Cutting the decade-long cord with the party, Rane declared himself as ‘Congress-Mukta’. His son, Nilesh also followed in his footsteps.
On leaving Congress
Narayan Rane was quoted as saying, I’ll show Congress what my true power is. I’ll be travelling across the state from tomorrow”. Having held a press conference on Thursday in the Sindhudurg district of the Konkan region, he said, I have sent my resignation letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. I was promised the post of Chief Minister four times, but it was not honoured by the party. Rane had also claimed that 25 Congress corporators across the State had also quit in solidarity with him. He, however, didnt clarify whether he would join another political outfit or float one of his own.
Escalating dissatisfaction
Expressing bitterness over the decisions taken by the Congress brass, Rane was evidently disappointed. This included the Congress passing him over for the post of the Chief Minister at least four times. He expressed his discontentment over how his position was understated and overlooked for the likes of Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh.
His previous political stint with the Shiv Sena for six terms as a legislator had also come to a bitter end then. His political career debacle started when he lost to Shiv Senas Vaibhav Naik in the 2014 Assembly elections. The decision of quitting Congress was spiked when Maharashtra’s Congress chief, Ashok Chavan, along with partys State-in-charge decided to dissolve the district committee in Sindhudurg. With most of the committee members being loyal aides of Rane, the decision didnt bode well and the crisis escalated.
Possibility of changing parties
Over the past few months, the possibility of defecting to the BJP was made evident by Ranes visits to Delhi where he had allegedly talked to Nitin Gadkari. Also, after meeting BJP President Amit Shah in Gujarat in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the possibility of switching sides was observed strongly. As of now, as stated by Narayan Rane in his press conference, hell make his decision evident by Dussherra. His comments made a strong indication of how he was in constant talks with different political parties, BJP being the prime one.
Quitting of a senior Congress leader is a strong message to the Congress that all is not well among party factions and that if this continues, it wouldnt be long till Congress has no leaders left to represent a state.
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