By Shyam Pandharipande, IANS
Mumbai : Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has taken a calculated risk by upping the ante against the Congress in Maharashtra and at New Delhi a day before the announcement of the Gujarat election results.
The maverick Shiv Sena rebel, who joined the Congress two years ago on the promise of being made the chief minister, has virtually served an ultimatum to the party to fulfil the promise or face early elections.
Indeed, the fact that Rane chose to fire the salvo from New Delhi at his own government led by “failed” Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is as significant as its timing – his press conference would not have had the desired impact a day later and the party’s central leadership won’t be more nervous at another time.
Unsure whether the Left parties will continue to deal the United Progressive Alliance government with kid gloves or pull the rug from under its feet over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Congress will have to think whether it can afford an early poll in Maharashtra before that.
The threat to quit the Congress with more legislators than he brought to it from the Shiv Sena and thus pull down Maharashtra’s Democratic Front government if he was not made the chief minister was implicit in Rane’s press conference.
“I am going to share my anguish with the party leaders, not you; but you can read my body language,” Rane told reporters.
“I have come to appraise the high command of the sorry state of affairs in the state. The problems have remained unsolved, the people are unhappy and the party’s defeat in the election is certain whenever it is held,” he said, adding that he cannot be a part of the hopeless situation.
Rane met Margaret Alva, the party in-charge of his state, declared that he had sought an appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
He said enough was enough and that it was time to rebel because the party faced electoral doom in the state under the leadership of a chief minister who he said had failed to deliver.
Rane’s frequent visits to New Delhi in the last one year yielded him nothing more than a counsel to wait, and the exercise soon began to look like a farce, with speculations of leadership change proving wrong every time.
Soon, the Maratha from Konkan started feeling that the wait would be endless for him, a source once close to him said.
“It doesn’t befit a national party to succumb to a newcomer’s blackmail particularly when he is not yet acceptable to a large number of the party rank and file,” the source reasoned.
But Rane, who raised the Congress legislature party strength to 75 by weaning six legislators from the Shiv Sena after his own crossover to the party, never ceased to demand his pound of flesh.
“Sharad Pawar’s NCP (Nationalist Congress Party, which was one up on Congress, is still stuck at 71,” he often told people.
Never ready to forget – and let the other side forget – the agreed terms of barter, he threatened to stop bringing further reinforcements to the party when he saw that the state level leaders did not take enough interest in the Ramtek Lok Sabha by-election campaign for Subodh Mohite earlier this year.
While Rane had in fact lived up to his threat by not bringing any new entrants to the party, he would realise that spiriting them away into political wilderness would be much more difficult than toeing them to greener pastures.
The options before Rane, including the theoretical ones – if he chooses to quit Congress at once – are all dicey.
Given Balasaheb and Uddhav Thackeray’s extreme bitterness for him, his return to the Shiv Sena is ruled out. It won’t be politically wise to join Raj Thackeray’s Nav Nirman Sena either, for that too is an individual centric party apart from being new with miles to go.
Nor will he be comfortable either with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or NCP as neither party would be ready to offer him the chief minister’s post. That leaves out only one option – Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Whether he – or the BSP leader – sees merit in the alliance would be interesting to watch.
If the Congress leadership reckons with this, it should pick up the gauntlet thrown by Rane and act against him because he has virtually dared them to do it by violating the party discipline so belligerently.
But given the ways of the old and the best surviving party, the Congress might not do that. Instead, the party might offer Rane a few ministerial berths and posts of heads of state-run boards and corporations for his followers with a promise of leadership change at a later date.
And Rane may take it.