Ahead of the Vidhan Sabha Elections in October, Congress(I) has made Narayan Rane as it's Poll Campaign Chief, Ashok Chavan as the Chairman of Election Co-ordination Committee & SushilKumar Shinde as the head of Poll Manifesto Committee. A rebel, alleged accused in scams, and own constituency reject will be leading the ruling party's campaign in the state.
Inspite of the huge rejection by the public at large in the recent Lok Sabha polls the party still doesn't seem to accept reality and prefers to stay in limbo. The appointments of these leaders vindicates the fact that only those staying loyal to the family will be recognized, else sidelined.
Lets take one by one on these significant moves and try to understand why it is mere rehabilitation process and not a constructive or sincere move.
Narayan Rane
Rane had recently revolted against the party and it's CM Prithiviraj Chavan's leadership skills to lead the state. His son who was sitting MP also lost the election to Shiv Sena candidate from the Konkan belt, which is considered to be his stronghold. Taking moral responsibility, at first, and then threatning to leave the party, he submitted his resignation from the Cabinet to the CM, who did not accept it by saying the party high command will take the final call. However it got a lukewarm reaction from the party president Sonia Gandhi. After being ignored, Rane decided for talks on a compromise formula with the state leadership. However the party said, to be considered for any organizational assignments compromise will only be reached if he takes back the resignation. So after the withdrawal, as promised, Rane was made the Poll Campaign Chief as well as the mining portfolio was also granted to him. With this Rane will have a larger say in selecting candidates and also on talks about alliances.
Ashok Chavan
Chavan was removed from the CM post when his name surfaced in the Adarsh Society scam. Since then he has been completely sidelined by the party. Though he was given the ticket for Lok Sabha from Nanded Constituency which he won, despite the Modi Wave, by a huge margin. Immediately after the results the Election Commission filed a case against him for not disclosing expenditure incurred for advertisements in the print media during the 2009 polls. However to his relief, the Mumbai High Court stayed the case initiated by th CBI and the Delhi High Court stayed the case initiated by the Election Commission. Also the Congress(I) appointed governor of Maharashtra K. Sankaranarayanan had went out of the way to reject CBI's plea to prosecute Chavan in the Adarsh Scam thus clearing his thorn on Chavan's march to Delhi. So after clearing all these hurdles the party has given him a fresh lease of life by making him the Election Co-ordinating Committee Chief. Like Rane, he is also a known detractor of Prithviraj Chavan and hence these appointments effectively makes the chief minister fight with his back to the wall for survival.
Sushilkumar Shinde
After making headlines by sending letters to state chief ministers of not arresting muslims when he was the Home Minister of the country or claiming the RSS and the BJP are promting Hindu Terrorism in election rallies. Shinde lost from his own turf in Solapur by a huge margin in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. So for him, the appointment as the manifesto committee head comes like a lottery. The embarrassing defeat should have completely sidelined him from any organizational assignments but his loyalty to the Gandhi family has been taken into consideration while giving him the post.
So as we see, it's clear from their bio's that appointments have not been made, taking into consideration the factors which led to the embarrassing defeat in the National Elections which also brought the party from 206 to mere 44 in the Parliament. These appointments also make it clear that CM Prithviraj Chavan, who has more clean image, will not have larger say in the election campaign.
The Modi wave still in the air and the strong anti government wave might bring a change in regime in the State, like in the Centre. With PM Narendra Modi likely to address 10 rallies in the State, will these appointments give a lease of life to Congress(I) or will it deteriorate its image further, only time will say.
SR.
Inspite of the huge rejection by the public at large in the recent Lok Sabha polls the party still doesn't seem to accept reality and prefers to stay in limbo. The appointments of these leaders vindicates the fact that only those staying loyal to the family will be recognized, else sidelined.
Lets take one by one on these significant moves and try to understand why it is mere rehabilitation process and not a constructive or sincere move.
Narayan Rane
Rane had recently revolted against the party and it's CM Prithiviraj Chavan's leadership skills to lead the state. His son who was sitting MP also lost the election to Shiv Sena candidate from the Konkan belt, which is considered to be his stronghold. Taking moral responsibility, at first, and then threatning to leave the party, he submitted his resignation from the Cabinet to the CM, who did not accept it by saying the party high command will take the final call. However it got a lukewarm reaction from the party president Sonia Gandhi. After being ignored, Rane decided for talks on a compromise formula with the state leadership. However the party said, to be considered for any organizational assignments compromise will only be reached if he takes back the resignation. So after the withdrawal, as promised, Rane was made the Poll Campaign Chief as well as the mining portfolio was also granted to him. With this Rane will have a larger say in selecting candidates and also on talks about alliances.
Ashok Chavan
Chavan was removed from the CM post when his name surfaced in the Adarsh Society scam. Since then he has been completely sidelined by the party. Though he was given the ticket for Lok Sabha from Nanded Constituency which he won, despite the Modi Wave, by a huge margin. Immediately after the results the Election Commission filed a case against him for not disclosing expenditure incurred for advertisements in the print media during the 2009 polls. However to his relief, the Mumbai High Court stayed the case initiated by th CBI and the Delhi High Court stayed the case initiated by the Election Commission. Also the Congress(I) appointed governor of Maharashtra K. Sankaranarayanan had went out of the way to reject CBI's plea to prosecute Chavan in the Adarsh Scam thus clearing his thorn on Chavan's march to Delhi. So after clearing all these hurdles the party has given him a fresh lease of life by making him the Election Co-ordinating Committee Chief. Like Rane, he is also a known detractor of Prithviraj Chavan and hence these appointments effectively makes the chief minister fight with his back to the wall for survival.
Sushilkumar Shinde
After making headlines by sending letters to state chief ministers of not arresting muslims when he was the Home Minister of the country or claiming the RSS and the BJP are promting Hindu Terrorism in election rallies. Shinde lost from his own turf in Solapur by a huge margin in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. So for him, the appointment as the manifesto committee head comes like a lottery. The embarrassing defeat should have completely sidelined him from any organizational assignments but his loyalty to the Gandhi family has been taken into consideration while giving him the post.
So as we see, it's clear from their bio's that appointments have not been made, taking into consideration the factors which led to the embarrassing defeat in the National Elections which also brought the party from 206 to mere 44 in the Parliament. These appointments also make it clear that CM Prithviraj Chavan, who has more clean image, will not have larger say in the election campaign.
The Modi wave still in the air and the strong anti government wave might bring a change in regime in the State, like in the Centre. With PM Narendra Modi likely to address 10 rallies in the State, will these appointments give a lease of life to Congress(I) or will it deteriorate its image further, only time will say.
SR.
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