Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, who was defeated in the Assembly elections from Kudal in Sindhudurg district, said this afternoon that he accepted the outcome.
“I accept the defeat. People of Konkan brought me into politics and gave me a chance to serve them. Now they have handed me my first electoral defeat,” he said, speaking to reporters in his constituency.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre on Sunday quit his post owning moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in the Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Thakre said he had sent his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“People have given us a mandate to play the role of opposition, and we will be a constructive opposition,” he said, adding that despite the good performance of the Congress-led state government, the party could not counter BJP’s “false propaganda”.
To a question, he said it would be wrong to blame former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan alone for the defeat.
Mr. Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader, was defeated by Sena’s Vaibhav Naik by about 9,000 votes. The defeat is embarrassing for Congress as he was the party’s campaign committee chief.
Mr. Rane, however, congratulated his son Nitesh, who won from neighbouring Kankavli on Congress ticket.
“People of Kankavli have elected a hard-working young man such as Nitesh with a margin of over 25,000 votes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Kankavli had no impact on his electoral chances,” he noted.
