SATTARI: When we are speaking about the deal-makers in the Congress how can the prince of Sattari, Baba Vishwajit Rane be left out of the series?
Rane, who first came on to the political scene after winning as an independent candidate, jumped to the Congress bandwagon in 2007 elections.
He was appointed the Health Minister in the Digambar Kamat government.
What the Congressmen believe was the move of junior Rane to bring in Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem) and Rajesh Patnekar (Bicholim) in Congress backfired as the party cadres worked against their win.
Not only Bicholim and Mandrem, the party could not even win the Sanquelim and Mayem seat, where Ranes boast of doing lot of development.
Come 2017 assembly elections, Rane is at it again, this time he wants five seats – Poriem, Sanquelim, Bicholim, Mayem and Valpoi.
He has already made an announcement that he would select the candidates for these five constituencies and the decision would be binding on the party leaders.
Strangely, the Congress apart from making some statements have failed to take any disciplinary action.
Apart from himself in Valpoi and his father Pratapsing Rane in Poriem, junior Rane wants Congress ticket for Pravin Zantye in Mayem, Naresh Sawal in Bicholim and his wife Divya in Sanquelim.
The junior Rane has also threatened to quit the Congress if it did not form an alliance with other parties. This is being seen by some party men as an arm-twisting exercise.
Vishwajit had said, “If a single leader wants to decide then let him fight the election on own, I will not be in Congress party. I will only be in Congress party if it stitches up an alliance with like-minded forces.”
Not only this, Rane has also publicly announced that people in his father’s constituency would want him to be the next chief minister. Which is simply a more diplomatic way of saying that the Rane’s will settle for nothingless than the top job for senior Rane. The small matter of getting a majority in the next elections, hasn’t quite been addressed.
While he has been threatening the Congress, it is now an open secret he wants to float and contest on the Sattari Yuva Morcha bandwagon.
“He no longer wants to be in Opposition and as per current trend the Congress is yet to regroup itself and has to work hard to come back to power. So Vishwajit does not want to be in the Congress boat but at the same time does not want to be away either,” said a source in Congress.
He added, “so Rane wants to contest on SYM so the options are open of aligning with any party which comes to power.”
Cumbharjua MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, dripping with sarcasm, questioned why Vishwajit is restricting himself only to five constituencies. “I don’t know why he is demanding five seats and restricting himself. He has the capacity to win all 40 seats and hence he should take that responsibility,” Madkaikar said.
