Jitters for CM as Rane meets Sonia

Congress leadership expected to take a hard look at Deshmukh’s performance next month

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Narayan Rane’s calculated gamble of throwing a virtual ultimatum to the Congress command seems to have yielded some results when party president Sonia Gandhi gave him an unscheduled appointment on Saturday. This has set off speculation among partymen in the state that chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s days may be numbered.

In Delhi, party sources said that sometime next month, the Congress leadership would take a long hard look at Deshmukh’s performance and the chances of his surviving in office beyond January remain “fifty-fifty”. But Deshmukh claimed his position was strong.

Rane’s outburst against Deshmukh on Friday, just when the party was gearing up for the results to the crucial Gujarat elections, came as a shock to many. Rane apparently has a long list of grievances against Deshmukh, complaining about being “totally ignored”. The state government was serving only “one person’s interests” Rane warned and said the party would suffer if it did not take corrective action. The message he was sending out was unambiguous-fulfil your promise of making me chief minister or I make other plans. The party, fully aware that he has a support base among MLAs, did wake up and take his outburst seriously.

Though Rane had said he would meet Sonia on Monday, there was a flurry of political activity in Delhi and he was summoned to 10, Janpath where he repeated his grievances.
 
However, he assured the party president that he had no plans to leave soon. Also present at the 20-minute meeting were Ahmad Patel political secretary to the Congress president and Margaret Alva, the AICC general secretary in charge of Maharashtra, who scotched rumours she was behind the outburst.

In Mumbai, Deshmukh put up a brave front, saying, “The party has taken note of the developments. The AICC statement speaks volumes. I don’t have any problems working with Rane.” He was referring to a statement issued by AICC’s media chairman, Veerappa Moily, wherein he was critical of Rane’s outburst. Party sources also said that the Congress high command would not appreciate him going public with his grievances.

Observers say that this is a well-thought-out but risky strategy by Rane. He had been promised the top job when he joined the party two years ago with his supporters, but has been frustrated that it has been a long time coming. If he now gets what he wants, he will stay on. If Deshmukh survives, Rane will find it difficult to continue in the government though he may continue in the party and consolidate his hold, emerging as a thorn in Deshmukh’s side. But he will have few places to go if he leaves the Congress, since nowhere would he really wield influence.

Of the total 288 seats in the state assembly, Congress had won 75, of which nearly 10 MLAs are loyal to Rane. Rane essentially is influential in Mumbai and the Konkan region, which together account for 66 seats.
 
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut pointed out that Rane’s behaviour was not unusual, since he had also deserted his benefactor Bal Thackeray.