Goa CM wants to do a Pawar in his state

MUMBAI: Public display of respect and affection for the chief of a rival party would normally be considered suicidal if it comes just ahead of crucial polls. But Pratapsinh Rane, the Congress chief minister of an election-bound Goa, has done just that.

Mr Rane looks up to NCP chief Sharad Pawar as his role model and says he is a leader worth emulating. The senior Congress leader said that he considers agricultural minister Sharad Pawar as his ‘guru’ and wanted to make farming reforms in his state by emulating the NCP leader.

The chief minister, with his agriculture background, told reporters that he intends to encourage agriculture in the state on par with what the NCP president has done in Baramati. “He has done wonders in agriculture as far as Baramati and other areas are concerned. We can emulate such models in Goa,” Mr Rane said talking informally to reporters at his official residence.

“My first love is farming. I want to show how agriculture can be productive,” the chief minister said. Mr Rane has a sprawling estate at Sakhali, some 50 km north from Panaji, where he carries out experiments in agriculture. He is one of the few farmers to have successfully grown different varieties of strawberries and mulberries.

Mr Rane believes that agriculture can be made an attractive profession. “Farming can be extremely profitable, if it is done scientifically like what Israel has done," Mr Rane said, adding that agriculture export zones should be the priority for Goa. The Congress, many think, may not take kindly to this embarrassing personal choice of its chief minister, especially when it’s locked in a bitter battle over seat-sharing with the Sharad Pawar-led outfit.