Congress may appoint Narayan Rane as Maharashtra party chief

MUMBAI: Maharashtra may see a change in the leadership of the Congress in the coming months if top leaders in the party are to be believed. Former Congress minister Narayan Rane may be appointed as the chief of the Congress unit in the state replacing Ashok Chavan.

Rane has been in the news because he and his two sons —former Congress MP Nilesh and MLA Nitesh —have openly questioned the leadership skills of current Congress chief Ashok Chavan. Narayan Rane, who has also questioned Chavan’s leadership is learnt to have opened a channel of communication with the BJP, which is what forced the Congress to take a decision.

Rane recently met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and complained about Chavan’s functioning. The Congress leadership was however, lukewarm to Rane’s grouses about Chavan since the former Congress minister has a knack of throwing frequent tantrums.


“What changed this time were reports of Rane hobnobbing with BJP chief Amit Shah and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. At a time when we are already facing a crisis it would not be prudent to let go off Rane at least now. So a decision was taken to assuage his concerns,” said a Congress leader.

According to Congress leaders, Rane has been told to keep his cool and that he would be appointed as the next Maharashtra Congress chief in another two to three months.

Two to three months is however, a long time in the Congress and Rane must be aware of it. In 2005, when Rane quit the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress he was ‘promised’ by a section of Maharashtra and Delhi Congress leaders that he would be made the chief minister by replacing Vilasrao Deshmukh within a couple of months. Months turned into years as the promise was never fulfilled.

The choices for Rane are very limited though; he cannot join the Shiv Sena as he had a bitter parting with its president Uddhav Thackeray.

The Congress leader is also averse to joining the NCP as it is in the Opposition and with leaders like Ajit Pawar, he won’t have much of a say in running the party.

Currently, the BJP seems to be the only option. However, Maharashtra BJP leaders said that ‘a deal between Rane and the BJP’ could not be worked out because the ‘Congress leader was asking for too much’.