A day after he resigned from the Maharashtra Cabinet, dissident Congress leader Narayan Rane took a step back on Tuesday, saying he would wait another two days for a response from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Mr. Rane met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre for over two hours on Tuesday. He said the three of them would meet Ms. Gandhi in Delhi in the next few days.
“I am not satisfied. The talks did not yield anything. But I am willing to meet Sonia Gandhi. The party has not yet accepted my resignation,” he told The Hindu. However, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan denied the offer of a meeting. “I will convey Mr. Rane’s complaints to Ms. Gandhi. It is up to the high command to decide on the resignation,” Mr. Chavan said.
Mr. Rane’s scathing criticism of Mr. Chavan and his public unhappiness with the party high command for not giving him the Chief Minister’s post has not gone down well with the Congress. The party seems to be in no hurry to placate the leader.
Sources within the Congress point out that Mr. Rane is no longer bargaining from a position of strength. “His son lost the Lok Sabha polls. The party was trailing in Mr. Rane’s own Assembly segment,” said a senior Congress leader. However, with the Assembly election due in just three months, the party cannot afford to lose an aggressive leader.
Mr. Rane seems to be keeping his options open, both within the Congress and with other parties. He is said to be in talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. He has denied this, but claims he has many options. “There is a vacancy for me in many parties,” he said.
Mr. Rane said he was yet to decide on whether he would contest the Assembly election at all. “My son Nitesh is interested in contesting. I have not yet decided,” he told The Hindu.
