News Analysis India

Tag: Pratapsingh Rane

  • Goa elections: Congress’ Pratapsingh Rane withdraws from fray after BJP fields kin from same seat

    By PTI

    PANAJI: In a setback to the Congress in Goa, party veteran and former state chief minister Pratapsingh Rane, whom the grand old party gave ticket from his traditional Poriem seat for the next month’s Assembly elections, has now withdrawn from the poll race.

    Although Rane was not available for comment, a Congress leader on Friday confirmed that the former CM has told the party that he will not be contesting the February 14 election.

    Sources close to Rane told PTI that the veteran leader has decided to withdraw from the fray to avoid a clash with his daughter-in-law, Deviya Rane, who will be contesting the election from Poriem constituency as a candidate of the ruling BJP.

    Rane (87), who has served as the chief minister of the coastal state for six times, had won from the Poriem Assembly constituency as many as 11 consecutive times. “Pratapsingh Rane has confirmed that he won’t be contesting the upcoming polls from Poriem, after which the party has selected another candidate from the seat,” a Congress spokesperson said.

    The BJP has nominated his daughter-in-law Deviya Rane, wife of state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, from Poriem. Reports were rife that Pratapsingh Rane might suggest the name of his wife, Vijayadevi, to the Congress as its candidate from the seat.

    But the revised list of candidates, which the Congress announced on Thursday evening named Ranjit Rane as its nominee from that constituency. Reportedly, the BJP had earlier tried to convince Pratapsingh Rane to contest on its ticket from Poriem before announcing the name of his daughter-in-law.

    The incumbent Pramod Sawant-led Goa government has bestowed upon Rane the lifetime cabinet status for completing 50 years as a legislator. Rane was elected from Poriem constituency for the first time in 1972 on the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), but fought all subsequent elections till 2017 as a Congress candidate.

    In the 2017 polls, he had secured 54.27 per cent votes in the constituency winning with a major margin.

    Deviya Rane will be contesting her maiden Assembly election, while her husband Vishwajit has been winning from Valpoi Assembly segment since 2007, first as an independent, then as a Congress candidate, before he joined the BJP.

  • Devendra Fadnavis hints at former Goa CM and veteran Congressman Pratapsingh Rane joining BJP

    By PTI

    PANAJI: Senior BJP leader and Goa poll in charge Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday claimed veteran Congressman and former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane might join the ruling party in the coastal state.

    The former Maharashtra chief minister was speaking at an event in which the Congress’ Ponda MLA Ravi Naik was inducted into the BJP.

    “The Congress in Goa was a nano party with four MLAs. Four persons can fit in a small car like Nano. Now it has been reduced to an auto (autorickshaw) party as three MLAs are left with them. Soon with Pratapsingh Rane’s blessings, the Congress will be reduced to a bicycle party, with only two persons remaining,” he said.

    Ridiculing the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, both of which plan to contest the 2022 Assembly polls here, as migratory birds from Siberia, he said these parties come to Goa for three months to escape extreme weather back home.

    “They come here for three months for polls and will return,” Fadnavis said, adding that BJP leaders like Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and state unit chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade were in Goa forever.

    “People from Goa should understand that tomorrow if they face some difficulty, you will have these leaders, while the people from Kolkata and Delhi will go back,” he said.

    Fadnavis also said the people of Goa will not accept the Trinamool Congress-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alliance.

    Attacking the TMC government in West Bengal, he said the eastern state had a high rate of crime and poverty and industries were averse to doing business there.

    He hit out at AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and said Delhi, which was a “half state”, has infrastructure created by the Union government, with the police under the control of the latter.

    The former Maharashtra CM questioned if any COVID-19 patient was treated at any of the ‘mohalla clinics’ that the AAP boasts of setting up across Delhi.

    “Mohalla clinics are created to take care of basic diseases. That is why people had to depend on the Central government’s hospitals or private facilities to get treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak,” Fadnavis claimed.

    Rane was not available for comment.