Fired, Rane says Thackeray love for son finishing Sena

Firing Rane, Thackeray sang praises of his son Uddhav, saying he was ‘‘doing outstanding work’’. In was meant to be a clear signal to the rank and file: No rebellion would be tolerated and Uddhav would be his successor.

Hours after he was thrown out, Rane retaliated by targeting the Sena chief for his ‘‘putra prem’’: ‘‘The way Shiv Sena is being managed these days, soon there will be only three people left in the party: Subhash Desai (the spokesperson), Uddhav Thackeray and his personal assistant Milind Narvekar. Senior and loyal people are being sidelined and outsiders are being promoted.’’

Rane said he would resign as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly but not before a show of strength on the floor of the House during the monsoon session. ‘‘I enjoy the support of at least 20 MLAs and five MPs of the party. But I will not like to name them, they may get into trouble,’’ he said.

Rane said that the party lost the last Assembly elections only because of Uddhav’s style of functioning. ‘‘He (Uddhav) may be a good administrator at Matoshree (the Thackeray residence) but he failed in Maharashtra.’’

Earlier, at a special meeting of Sena MLAs called at a hotel in a Mumbai suburb, Thackeray lashed out against Rane: ‘‘Who was he? I turned him into Valmiki from Valya (the dacoit Valya who turned into a sage and wrote the Ramayana). Let him go wherever he likes and indulge in whatever he wants to.’’

‘‘And those who want to leave with him can also go. We have better people waiting. The party will not be affected even if half a dozen MLAs leave. We are not the party in power and we are immune to such jhatkas (jolts).’’

Of the 63 Sena MLAs, only 41 turned up for the meeting. Nine others sent letters to the party, citing various reasons for not making it. Nothing was heard from 13 MLAs.

But it later turned out that at least eight MLAs—Shambhu Desai, Shankar Kamble, Ganpat Kadam, Subhash Bane, Shyam Sawant, Kalidas Kolambkar, Vijay Vadattiwar and Vinayak Nimhan—were at Rane’s official residence when Thackeray was conducting the meeting.

The Sena chief reminded them that Bhujbal’s defection in 1991 saw the party coming to power in Maharashtra four years later. He asked his followers not to consider Rane as an ‘‘enemy’’: ‘‘There might be somebody else behind this (Rane’s quitting). I don’t know. ’’

He said that Rane should resign from the membership of the Assembly as he was elected to the House by Shiv Sainiks. ‘‘He made baseless allegations recently that money was collected for distributing Assembly tickets. Let him give names. I will kick out all such persons even if they happen to be Uddhav and Raj. I called him and reprimanded him for loose talk but he continued with his irresponsible behaviour. He refused to attend meetings and functions of the party, including the foundation day celebrations. How long can I bear this?’’

Thackeray praised Uddhav for his work: ‘‘Uddhav has done unprecedented work for the Sena. We used to concentrate only on speeches and tours, but he has compiled extensive data and computerised it. It has immensely improved the Sena.’’