Narayan Rane rattles Deshmukh

MUMBAI: Barely a month after the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh celebrated completion of his three year tenure as chief minister of this state, his own cabinet colleague Narayan Rane gave him a massive jolt when he publicly revolted against him.

Though the epicentre of this revolt was in New Delhi where Rane held a press conference questioning Deshmukh's ability to lead the state, its tremors rattled his throne in Maharashtra.
  
Rane while addressing a press conference in New Delhi without naming Deshmukh after meeting Margaret Alva, AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra said the government was not working for the 10 crore people of the state but only for 'one person'.

While it is an open secret that Rane, a former Shiv Sena Chief Minister had quit the party in 2005 following his differences with the Sena and joined the Congress was nursing an ambition to become the chief minister, his open revolt was surprising if not shocking to political observers.

After Rane was expelled from Sena he joined the Congress with a one point agenda of reoccupying the chair of Chief Minister. Interestingly Rane fired his salvo against Deshmukh after meeting the AICC incharge of Maharashtra, Margaret Alva, a strong Deshmukh baiter. This is being interpreted in the political circles that Rane had her tacit support though neither of them admitted it.

What seems to have made things difficult for Deshmukh is the fact that even after such an outburst against Deshmukh, Rane managed to get an audience with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

This has given grist to the rumour mills that Deshmukh's days as Chief Minister of Maharashtra are numbered and that there could be a change of guard.
  
The incident also has a cascading effect on the other parties which was evident from the fact that within days of this incident the Union Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar had an hour long closed door meeting with the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackrey at the latter's residence at 'Matoshree' in Bandra.

Though the Shiv Sena chief tried to downplay the meeting in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samana as a 'courtesy visit' of Pawar who was a friend of Thackeray, the timing of the meeting fuelled speculation that it was meant to thwart the ambitions of Rane who is a common foe of both Thackeray as well as Pawar.
 
Thackeray's aversion stems from the fact that Rane had quit Sena in 2005 when he began to feel that he was being marginalised while Thackeray's son Uddhav Thackeray was becoming stronger in the party. On 3rd July 2005 Naryan Rane announced his resignation from the Shiv Sena and subsequently from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly twenty days later and then joined the Congress.

The Nationalist Congress Party dislikes him because he has strengthened the Congress Rane had enabled the Congress to score over the NCP in numbers in Maharashtra legislative Assembly.
  
He was the one who engineered the defections of seven Sena MLAs, six of whom got reelected on Congress tickets. Consequently NCP which had emerged as the single largest party in the 2004 assembly polls with 71 seats is now in second position as the strength of Congress has shot up from 68 to 75-thanks to Rane.

The problem for Deshmukh is not just Rane, it is his own detractors in the Congress who are actively campaigning against him. Among them two prominent Congress leaders Margaret Alva and the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Chief Prabha Rau.

The MPCC had constituted a fact finding team to examine burning issues in the state including farmers suicides, sugar cane glut, power crisis , malnutrition deaths and other issues. The report of the team especially relating to malnutrition deaths had caused considerable discomfiture to Deshmukh.

Meanwhile in an interesting political twist, Rau in her speech on the occassion of Congress foundation day said that the party must be wary of the entrants " not all of whom might have joined the party with selfless motives."

Her statement is seen as an effort to distance herself from Rane's controversial press conference criticising the chief minister.

But will the Congress High Command replace Vilasrao Deshmukh with Rane? This seems improbable because it will give wrong signals to the loyal rank and file of the Congress and it could trigger series of revolts elsewhere.