Rane blames party colleagues for defeat

Congress leader Narayan Rane, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the Bandra East Assembly by-election on Wednesday, has blamed the party organisation, triggering conspiracy theories that Congress leaders did not want another Chief Minister aspirant in the Legislative Assembly. Shiv Sena’s Trupti Sawant, the widow of Sena MLA Prakash Sawant, scored an emphatic victory.

Though Mr. Rane himself conceded defeat, Prahar , a Marathi newspaper owned by him, said in an editorial that Congress leaders plotted against the senior leader from Konkan. “They felt threatened by his possible victory. Some leaders came for the campaigning, some didn’t even make their presence felt. Even those who came participated during the day. At night, they engaged in anti-Rane activities,” the editorial titled “Rane won, Congress lost,” said.

Mr. Rane’s younger son and Congress MLA Nitesh Rane was more vocal about the failure of the Congress to catch the imagination of voters. “There is absolutely no party organisation in Mumbai,” he said. He said the increase of 20,000 votes for the Congress was solely because of his father’s parallel system of activists and election machinery.

“Had there been any other leader, the Congress could not have saved its deposit in this bypoll,” he said.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan, however, played down the controversy.

“Someone wins and someone faces defeat in elections. One defeat is not a big blow for us. Mr. Narayan Rane is party’s senior leader in the State and no one should speculate,” said Mr. Chavan.

Shiv Sena jibe

The Sena, on the other hand, is leaving no stone unturned to ridicule Mr. Rane, and even advising him to contest gram panchayat election in his native Konkan region.

“He backstabbed Balasaheb and people have taught him a good lesson, first in 2014 and then in Bandra. Why does not he contest Gram panchayat polls now?” asked Sena MP Vinayak Raut, who had defeated Mr. Rane’s elder son Nilesh in the Lok Sabha polls from Konkan.

Sources close to Mr. Narayan Rane say that he saw this by-poll as his chance to bounce back in State politics. However, many in the party believe that he dug his own grave by accepting the party leadership’s offer to contest from the Sena bastion.

Except for MLA Naseem Khan, former MLA and scam-tainted Kripashankar Singh and a few other Congress leaders no one put any effort to make the Congress win.