Narayan Rane named for Maharashtra Legislative Council poll

Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, who suffered two successive defeats in the last Assembly poll and later a bypoll, was on Saturday made the Congress nominee for the state Legislative Council polls.

His nomination has not only sprang a surprise on the state party, but showed weakness of the high command as Congress leaders are asking what was the compulsion behind the reason for his nomination.

“Rane himself got defeated in two elections while his son had lost the Lok Sabha polls but the AICC continues to back him and his family and thereby sending out a message that he is indispensable,” said a party leader. Mr Rane had lost the Assembly polls from his pocketborough of Kankavali and following that, he was defeated in the bypoll in the Bandra constituency of Mumbai last year.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also decided nominations for four Karnataka Legislative Council seats. Besides senior leader Allum Veerbhadrappa, she nominated R.B. Thimmapur, Arshad Rizwan and Veena Achaiah.

He grew in the Shiv Sena and Balasaheb Thackeray had made him the chief minister by replacing Manohar Joshi before 1999. Later, he made him Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly when Vilasrao Deshmukh became the chief minister of Congress-NCP combine.

He joined the Congress following his differences with Mr Uddhav Thackeray. Interestingly,he is not the only former `Shiv Sainik’ who is enjoying confidence of the Gandhi-Nehru family but another former `Shiv Saink’ who was once close to the Thackeray family—mr Sanjay Nirupam is heading the Mumbai regional Congress.