Narayan Rane has quit as Maharashtra Industries Minister
Sulking Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane resigned today, a move that had was widely expected.
The 62-year-old has been upset at not being made Chief Minister and being passed over for the top job repeatedly.
"I didn't resign for a post, but the Congress high command did not keep their word," Mr Rane told reporters.
Once acknowledged as the "king of Konkan", Mr Rane's political clout has diminished substantially since the national election in which his son lost Nilesh lost a key Lok Sabha seat in the region. The Congress and its ruling partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were decimated in the election; the Congress won just two of the state's 48 seats, NCP won four.
Mr Rane had resigned then but the party did not accept it.
Though the Congress does not anticipate a major political impact, Mr Rane's resignation has highlighted the party's apparent disarray in the state. Despite murmurs of dissent against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, the party has decided to retain him for the state election due by October.
Mr Rane was among those who demanded change.
He has claimed that the chief minister's post was promised to him when he joined the Congress after leaving the Shiv Sena in 2005.
Mr Rane has not revealed whether he will quit the Congress, a party with which is relationship has often been strained. He denied speculation of cosying up to the BJP, saying, "I have not met BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. I had met him last when Gopinath Munde passed away."
His return to the Shiv Sena seems difficult, given that he has not stopped taking potshots at party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Yesterday, he said at a function that Mr Thackeray "is not fit to be even a sarpanch."