For close to fifty years the Congress thought Sattari was their backyard. Now they have been humiliated by a former Congressman who is less than fifty years old. Vishwajit Rane, who quit the party and as MLA on the day he was sworn in after the Assembly elections, has merely mouthed what all realists knew, that it wasn’t the Congress but the Ranes who ruled Sattari and will do so.
The Congress has no ammunition or cadre to contest this or prevent the absolute erosion of the party from the area as a barrage of humiliating comments were made by Junior Rane at a press conference on Friday
Sample them:
-“Sattari is completely saffronised now. The support for BJP is increasing. There is no more Congress in Sattari in future. Both are going to be my seats”.
– “He (Pratapsingh Rane) is my father. His well wishes are with me and not with the party. It is a family affair”
– “Valpoi voters were never Congress voters. They were my voters. With me joining BJP, my vote bank is also shifted to BJP. Now there is only BJP that is ruling Sattari”
None of what Junior Rane says can be contested, as that is the hard reality. And these comments should not surprise any political observer who knew, all along that the loyalty of Junior Rane to the Congress, was superficial. But it is the role of his father and the manner in which he is willfully allowing the Congress base in Sattari to erode as he walks into the sunset of his political life, which is condemnable.
Pratapsingh Rane is no longer worthy of respect, for those who believe in the Congress, albeit, however, that its base of genuine believers is fast shrinking. His silence, inaction and more than tacit backing of his son in draping himself with BJP colours, in hindsight, doesn’t appear to be a new phenomenon. It can be assumed, on the basis of his present actions, that all the attempts made by Junior Rane in the past, to float his own unit the Sattari Yuva Manch, to contest against the Congress, with the BJP support, in the 2017 Assembly elections, had the support of his father. He could not have not known his son’s plans, both for the short term and the long term, and his game plan of ditching and quitting the Congress and becoming a minister in the Parrikar government.
All along, Senior Rane, the tallest and the seniormost leader of the party, allowed and to a large extent paved way for his son to finish the party he owes his entire political life to, in his backyard.
While the votes Vishwajit Rane gets in the Valpoi by elections and his performance in Poriem in the next one will tell us to what extent his words are true, there are no words to describe Pratapsingh Rane’s betrayal. The phrase ‘backstabbing’ the Congress will not be out of place to describe the action or rather inaction of Pratapsingh Raoji Rane.
Moreover, if indeed politics is all about the family, then he must be the first person to be prosecuted for championing family raj and not the other Congress families like those of the Alemaos who suffered heavy defeats in 2012 as people of Goa rejected family raj. And if it is his family’s raj that Rane wants to prevail in Sattari, then he should resign from the Congress immediately and then take his next political decision.
The Congress is paying the price for many of its mistakes. And the one that tops the list is not to have recognised the fact that one their biggest betrayers was their seniormost multiple time Chief Minister.
