Ten days after he resigned from the primary membership of the Congress, former Chief Minister Narayan Rane on Sunday announced the formation of a new political outfit “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” and said that his party would join the BJP-led NDA, if invited to do so.
Having failed to gain a “direct entry” to the BJP amid resistance from the ruling Shiv Sena and also from within a section of the principal ruling party, Rane — as was being talked about in the State political circles for the party few days — announced the setting up of “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha”, amid intense speculation that he might join the Devendra Fadnavis Government as a senior Minister.
Announcing the formation of a new political outfit, Rane said at a news conference here that while “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” would be registered soon, he would unveil the party’s symbol and flag in the coming days.
Queried specifically if his party would join the NDA, Rane said: “let my party get formed first. Then, if someone asks me if my party would join them, then we would formally say we will join”.
To another query on whether he would join the Devendra Fadnavis Government in the impending State Cabinet expansion, Rane said: “Why don’t you pose this question to FadnavisIJ After all it is he who decides whom to induct newly into his Cabinet. No one has communicated anything to me anything in this regard”.
Rane’s decision to float a new party comes six days after he met BJP’s national president Amit Shah in New Delhi, along with state party president Raosaheb Danve and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.
Informed sources in the that given the resistance from the Shiv Sena and the reservations expressed in a section of its state party ranks to Rane’s “direct entry” to its party fold, the BJP leadership advised him to float his own party so that he could be accommodated in the NDA – which will pave way for his induction in the State Cabinet.
That Rane is favourably dispensed towards the BJP and NDA could be evidenced from the fact that at his press conference, he castigated the Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for his continued criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government’s decisions like demonetisation and GST, he defended Modi’s bullet train project train project and said he did not think that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had taken the farmers in the State for a ride through his loan waiver decision.
The formation of “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” is a milestone in his more than four-decade long political career.
Having been associated with the Shiv Sena since early seventies, Rane emerged as a senior leader in the party and was made the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a post he held between February 1, 1999 and October 17, 1999 when the Sena-BJP alliance was ruling the State.
However, after he rebelled against the leadership of then party’s executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Rane was expelled from the Shiv Sena on July 3, 2005. He joined the Congress on July 30, 2005, expecting that one day he would be made a chief minister of the state – a dream that remained unfulfilled.
While in the Congress, he was suspended once from the party on December 6,2008 for his outburst against the party leadership, a day after Ashokrao Chavan was appointed as the Chief Minister in place of Vilasrao Deshmukh in the wake of November 26-30 Mumbai terrorist attack
After being in the Congress for 12-long years, Rane quit the Sonia Gandhi party on September 21, after complaining that the party leadership had failed to fulfil its repeated promise of appointing him as the chief minister.
Going by the manner in which Rane took on Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at Sunday’s news conference, Rane has his job cut out as the founder of the “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” which is going to be part of the BJP-led alliance in the State and at the Centre’.
First, the ruling BJP would use Rane to launch counter-offensive against the Shiv Sena and its leaders, including Uddhav, in the run-up to the 2019 lok Sabha and Assembly polls. Secondly, Rane would go all out to poach MlAs from both the Shiv Sena and Congress.
Incidentally, Rane’s son Nitesh continues to be a Congress MlA. He stayed away from Rane’s news conference on Sunday. Nitesh Rane’s continued presence in the Congress is a strategic move employed by Sr Rane, who will in all likelihood use his son to poach into the Congress.
Incidentally, Sr Rane has derived his new party’s name from the NGO Swabhimani Sanghatana floated by his Congress MlA-son Nitesh Rane, who has been elected from Kudal constituency in coastal Konkan region.
Earlier, singling out Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for a vicious attack, Rane demanded to know as to what it is its contribution to the Devendra Fadnavis government during the last three years.
“What has Uddhav done beyond indulging in vicious criticism of the ruling BJP in the state and at the Centre. Does Uddhav have the moral right to criticise Prime Modi in a manner he has been doing for the past three yearsIJ On one hand, he (Uddhav) equates demonetisation to treachery, while on the other his party Ministers make no issue of it in the State Cabinet. Why the Sena ministers have not spoken anything about the rise in price in fuel prices, essential commodities and domestic gas cylinder in the State CabinetIJ,” Rane asked.
“Uddhav says that corruption has not ended due to demonetisation. I would like to ask him as to why he has not taken any measures to end corruption in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The most corrupt municipal corporation in the entire country is BMC. Who has been ruling the BMC for the past 25 yearsIJ. It is the Shiv Sena,” he said. Rane reiterated that the Sena’s lust for power so much so that come what may, it would not quite the BJP-led Government in the State.