National

Now Rane trains his guns on Ahmed Patel

MUMBAI: Suspended Congressman Narayan Rane on Saturday backtracked on his statement that he had lost faith in party president Sonia Gandhi, but trained his guns on her political secretary Ahmed Patel instead.

He continued his outburst against the Congress, while clarifying that he had never said anything against Ms. Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mr. Rane alleged that Mr. Patel was behind the conspiracy to keep him out of power.

He said a leader was helping terrorist groups in this country with logistics and that’s why terror attacks were taking place. Terrorism could not work without inside help. There must be an inquiry into who was helping them. He, however, declined to name any party or person.

As for his suspension from the Congress, Mr. Rane said no word reached him as yet and he was not going to resign. “Anyway I am on my way out,” he said at a press conference at his official residence in Malabar Hill. He said he welcomed this move as Vilasrao Deshmukh too was suspended from the party in 1997 and he went on to become Chief Minister.

“If I decide, the party cannot form the government here. I have the support of 25-30 MLAs. I can easily topple the government when it is formed. But I am not going to, keeping in mind the current circumstances, in the aftermath of the terror strikes.” He said he had the support of 48 MLAs, while Ashok Chavan, who has been named the new Chief Minister, only had 32 MLAs in his favour. A handful supported Patangrao Kadam and Balasaheb Vikhe Patil. “My name was almost announced but it was stopped at the last moment.”

Mr. Rane said he was the sacrificial goat because he had taken a stand against industrialists, especially in the Videocon land deal, and the Wakf land and the City and Industrial Development Corporation land grab.

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