MUMBAI, 23 December 2007 — The political crisis in the Maharashtra state government deepened yesterday, one day after Revenue Minister Narayan Rane launched a scathing attack on state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh at a press conference in New Delhi.
Speaking against Chief Minister Deshmukh, Rane told Arab News, “I’m not happy with the way the state government is being run. I can’t take bad governance anymore. I have remained quiet for two years and cannot wait any longer.”
Dissension in the Congress-led Democratic Front (DF) government has become more pronounced. Rane told the Congress high command that the chief minister’s performance would destroy the party and the outcome would be visible in the next general elections if Deshmukh is not removed as soon as possible.
“The DF government is not working for the 100 million people in the state but for ‘one person.’ It appears to me that the government is being run to serve the interest of just one person,” Rane said referring to Deshmukh. He said he had informed the party president of the state of affairs.
Rane is scheduled to meet Congress president on Monday but there are rumors that he may quit the Congress with his supporter MPs if his meeting with Sonia Gandhi does not prove fruitful. Rane, however, dispelled such rumors saying he would continue to be in Congress.
Rane was instrumental in making the Congress the single largest party in Maharashtra as several Shiv Sena legislators supporting him, quit their party and won by-elections on Congress tickets. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) emerged as the single largest party in the state after the October 2004 elections.
Rane, who was the chief minister in the Sena-BJP alliance government eight years ago and joined the Congress two years back, did not name Deshmukh but made it obvious that the chief minister was his target.
“Why do you want me to name him. You know him” he said.
Rane contradicted his own government’s figures on farmers’ suicides during the winter session of the state legislature, proving there is a serious lack of communication in the higher echelon of power. The chief minister has ruled out any threat to his government and said it was stable.
Deshmukh, who met Sonia last Thursday will again meet the Congress president on Monday, the day Rane is also scheduled to meet her.
Prabha Rau, the state Congress chief, arrived in Delhi yesterday after the political crisis deepened. A large number of MPs, legislators and supporters of Rane are expected to arrive in Delhi to exert pressure on the Congress high command to change the state leadership.
Reacting to the political crisis in the state, Sena working President Uddhav Thackeray said it was an internal matter of the Congress and it was for them to decide on any action against Rane for ‘indiscipline.”
The Sena, Uddhav said did not tolerate Rane’s indiscipline when he was in the party. The Congress should decide how to tame Rane, he said.
The BJP did not lag behind in grabbing the opportunity to stoke the situation. Two senior BJP leaders, state BJP President Nitin Gadkari and the party’s national Vice President Gopinath Munde complimented Rane and said the state government led by Deshmukh was a total failure.
‘’Statements by Rane reflect the instability within Congress. So far 1,500 farmers have committed suicide in a year. Loadshedding continues for 16 to 18 hours and law and order situation is grim,” said Gadkari. “Maharashtra doesn’t need another chief minister from the same party but a fresh mandate,” he added.
Munde said, ‘’It’s been seven years of misrule by the Congress. None of the issues have been resolved. The government has failed on all fronts; mere resignations won’t do. Maharashtra needs a fresh mandate,’’ he added.
