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Vilasrao Deshmukh has a kindred spirit in former Goa chief minister Pratapsing Rane. Their common nemesis is Margaret Alva, who oversees both states on behalf of the Congress high command.

In Mumbai, Deshmukh’s travails with Alva are the stuff of which gossip is made. Next door in Goa, the Rane-Alva feud nearly lost Congress the assembly elections. Sonia Gandhi had to rush a swarm of leaders from Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat to save the party from going down in yet another poll debacle.

A galaxy of them was parked in Goa for over a fortnight with strict instructions to muzzle Alva and reign in Rane. There were Sanjay Nirupam and Narayan Rane from Mumbai, Mabel Rebello, J P Aggarwal and Sandeep Dikshit from Delhi and Siddharth Patel from Gujarat. How many does it take to put out a Congress bush fire? Quite a lot, obviously.

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Nobody knows the origin of the trouble between Rane and Alva. What’s known is that Rane finds Alva too interfering and Alva finds Rane too arrogant. She’s believed to have complained that he never bothers to receive her at the airport when she visits Goa on behalf of the high command!

The situation threatened to spin out of control when Alva refused to concede Rane’s demand to give his son Vishwajeet a ticket. One family, one ticket, was her line. Outraged Goans started asking questions whether the rule would apply to the Gandhis in the next elections.

The situation took a comic turn when the Ranes decided that Vishwajeet would contest as an independent candidate. The Congress tried to find a nominee who would stand against the CM’s son.

Obviously no-one dared. In desperation, the Congress leadership begged Vishwajeet himself to put up a dummy candidate to save the party’s face. Congress workers went to Vishwajeet’s campaign office and dragged out a motorcycle fitter wearing shorts and a dirty shirt, took him to the returning officer and got him to sign the nomination form.

To his utter surprise, he found his photograph in the newspapers the next morning and discovered what he had got himself into. He immediately withdrew his nomination and slunk back to his garage to hide his head. It’s a wonder that the Congress emerged as the single largest party after so many false starts.

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The drama didn’t end with the declaration of results. Instead of celebrating the first piece of good news in a year of electoral debacles, the party immediately plunged into another tussle, this time over the candidate for chief minister. Rane thought he should be nominated again.

Alva pushed for Ravi Naik. The allies who helped the Congress make up the numbers for government formation wanted Rane or his nominee. For two days, they argued. Finally, Gandhi rushed RK Dhawan and Sushil Kumar Shinde to sort out the mess.

The arguments continued even as she was boarding the flight to Amsterdam where was due to deliver a lecture. Ahmed Patel was on the phone to Goa constantly and finally, he cracked the whip. Soniaji has asked for a consensus candidate, he told the warring factions. At midnight, the day before the swearing in ceremony, Digamber Kamat became the chosen one.

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So, who won? Well, Alva managed to block Rane. On the other hand, Rane got in a man who is said to be close to him. A typical Congress stalemate. No one won but no one lost either.
Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net