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Pune: The Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government would collapse by March 2022 and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government would come to power, opined Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and senior BJP leader Narayan Rane.
Speaking in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the senior BJP leader clarified that he was merely endorsing what the BJP’s Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil had predicted earlier. Rane further remarked, “One will be able to see the expected changes in Maharashtra once the BJP comes to power there in March”.
Asked as to how he derived this conclusion, Rane merely remarked: “Whatever is my internal knowledge, I do not want to reveal…if one wants to topple a government or form a new one, one needs to keep some things secret.” He further added that this was state BJP president Chandrakant Patil’s prediction and that the party was working towards realising it.
Refusing to comment on Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the BJP Union Minister remarked “It is not good to comment on a person who is ill and bedridden. But the three-party coalition of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress does not have much life left in them.” Thackeray recently has undergone a surgery of the spine and is recuperating at home.
Relations between the two leaders have been acrimonious to say the least and hit an all-time low in August earlier this year after Rane kicked up a controversy during his tour of Konkan region when he remarked that he would have given Thackeray “a tight slap” for allegedly forgetting the number of years of India’s Independence during the Chief Minister’s August 15 speech.
His remarks triggered a wave of anger amongst Shiv Sena cadres who ransacked BJP party offices in Nashik, Pune and Mumbai and clashed with BJP workers in various parts of the state.
About five FIRs were filed against Rane in different parts of the State which led to Nashik Police Commissioner issuing an arrest warrant for Rane senior. It may be recalled that the BJP leader was taken into police custody and produced before a local court in Raigad which later granted Rane bail on conditions of furnishing a bond of Rs. 15,000.
Following this, the two leaders had a tense face-to-face meeting in October during the inauguration of the Chipi airport in Sindhudurg district in the Konkan region. Since then, the two leaders traded verbal jibes at each other with Rane taking the credit for developing Sindhudurg district. In a rejoinder Thackeray rebuked Rane for politicizing an auspicious event.
This is not the first time that senior BJP leaders have predicted the collapse of the ruling MVA government in Maharashtra, with BJP State chief Chandrakant Patil making similar predictions several times in the last two years.
Responding to Rane’s remarks, Sena leader and Maharashtra Minister for Public Transport Anil Parab sarcastically remarked that the MVA did not run or fall on the former’s predictions and that the ruling alliance would complete its full five-year term.
