Narayan Rane quits Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's cabinet

Senior Congress leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane submitted his resignation to Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday.

Rane on Thursday had announced that he would be quitting the post of Industries minister in Chavan's cabinet, but would continue to be a part of the Congress party. Although the senior leadership had been trying to make him reconsider his decision, Rane had remained firm on his decision.

Rane is reportedly upset with the party central leadership which has not been paying attention to his demand of overhauling the party before the Assembly polls. A few days ago, Rane had also said that the Congress high command had not keep its word of making him the chief minister in the last nine years. Rane will be talking about the reasons behind his resignation and his future plans in a press conference on Monday noon.

Rane had joined the Congress after he quit the Shiv Sena in 2005, with the expectation that he would get the chief minister's chair, but his dream was never fullfilled. The senior leader had also offered his resignation in May 2014 after his son Nilesh Rane was defeated by Shiv Sena candidate Vinayak Raut by 1.5 lakh votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Rane had served as Chief Minister for nine months while in Shiv Sena in 1999, when the NDA government was at the helm of affairs in Maharashtra. In 2005, soon after joining Congress, he was inducted as a minister in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government.