Rau, CM smoke peace pipe on Gandhi Jayanti
Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and state Congress president Prabha Rau, otherwise at loggerheads with each other, were seen heaping lavish praise on each other.
By TNN |
MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and state Congress president Prabha Rau, otherwise at loggerheads with each other, were altogether a different picture on Tuesday. At a function held here to release a special issue of party mouthpiece on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, they were seen heaping lavish praise on each other.
This Congress spirit was at its peak at the function that also saw Ms Rau’s bete noire releasing her performance report in the presence of Union home minister Shivraj Patil. In a rather left-handed compliment to Ms Rau, the chief minister said she had brought a sense of discipline to the party organisation in the state. For the record, the CM also honourably mentioned revenue minister Narayan Rane’s contribution to the Congress since he joined the party two years ago.
“Before Mr Rane joined the Congress, we had this inferiority complex of being a number two party in the state. But Mr Rane brought as many as seven legislators with him into the Congress and we became party No 1 in the state. The credit goes to Mr Rane,” Mr Deshmukh said.
Mr Rane, who still seems to be learning his lessons in understanding the Congress culture, apparently did not enjoy the public display of camaraderie between Mr Deshmukh and Ms Rau, and instead asked party workers not to raise slogans in support of anyone else other than Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The revenue minister, sporting the politically correct khadi kurta-pyjama unlike his trademark suit, looked composed, which Congress insiders attributed to the possibility of him being made the new state unit president in place of Ms Rau.
Ms Rau, who only a fortnight ago led a 150-member strong delegation of Congress functionaries to Delhi to unseat Mr Deshmukh, sought to project a picture of solidarity between the party and the government. “There is no reason why party workers should get confused over the reported differences between the leaders.
There are no differences. The government is doing a good job and it’s the duty of the organisation to create awareness about it,” Ms Rau said. The nice words about his government must have been music to Mr Deshmukh’s ears, as only recently some state Congress-sponsored committees brutally criticised the functioning of the state government on a host of public issues.
At a political function like this, Mr Patil looked completely out of sorts. In his typical “strictly formal” appearance, the Congress leader from Marathwada admitted that he had never taken up any party assignment in his career.
This Congress spirit was at its peak at the function that also saw Ms Rau’s bete noire releasing her performance report in the presence of Union home minister Shivraj Patil. In a rather left-handed compliment to Ms Rau, the chief minister said she had brought a sense of discipline to the party organisation in the state. For the record, the CM also honourably mentioned revenue minister Narayan Rane’s contribution to the Congress since he joined the party two years ago.
“Before Mr Rane joined the Congress, we had this inferiority complex of being a number two party in the state. But Mr Rane brought as many as seven legislators with him into the Congress and we became party No 1 in the state. The credit goes to Mr Rane,” Mr Deshmukh said.
Mr Rane, who still seems to be learning his lessons in understanding the Congress culture, apparently did not enjoy the public display of camaraderie between Mr Deshmukh and Ms Rau, and instead asked party workers not to raise slogans in support of anyone else other than Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The revenue minister, sporting the politically correct khadi kurta-pyjama unlike his trademark suit, looked composed, which Congress insiders attributed to the possibility of him being made the new state unit president in place of Ms Rau.
Ms Rau, who only a fortnight ago led a 150-member strong delegation of Congress functionaries to Delhi to unseat Mr Deshmukh, sought to project a picture of solidarity between the party and the government. “There is no reason why party workers should get confused over the reported differences between the leaders.
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There are no differences. The government is doing a good job and it’s the duty of the organisation to create awareness about it,” Ms Rau said. The nice words about his government must have been music to Mr Deshmukh’s ears, as only recently some state Congress-sponsored committees brutally criticised the functioning of the state government on a host of public issues.
At a political function like this, Mr Patil looked completely out of sorts. In his typical “strictly formal” appearance, the Congress leader from Marathwada admitted that he had never taken up any party assignment in his career.
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