Hitting out at his arch party rival Narayan Rane for the outbursts against him, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Sunday made it clear that he has never been a roadblock in the Congress rebel's chief ministerial ambitions."All the allegations are being made out of personal grudge. He (Rane) feels that he could not reach the top position because of me. It is his misunderstanding that I am a roadblock in his chief ministerial ambitions," Deshmukh said.This is for the first time Deshmukh has come out openly to criticise Rane's actions who periodically attacked the former chief minister dubbing him as incompetent.Deshmukh said he did not give much credence to Rane's public tirade against him since he has been suspended from the party. He said he understood the mindset of Rane who is "pained" and "demoralised" for not getting the chief ministerial post.Terming the allegations made against him by Rane as political in nature, Deshmukh said, "I will tackle it at that level.""Rane was in my cabinet for three years and now he says that I have taken the state 20 years backwards. What was he doing for three years then. His intentions are clear. If he had replaced me as Chief Minister, he would have praised me," Deshmukh said.He said there was no comparison between his suspension from the party in 1997 and that of Rane's now.Deshmukh said he had publicly admitted his mistake of contesting a legislative council election against the Congress' official candidate.Whereas Rane has been suspended for personally attacking the party and its leadership after losing the chief ministerial race, he said."My action was borne out of a peculiar situation. I did not join any other party and also did not publicly speak against the leadership. When I was suspended I had said that nobody can remove Congress from my blood. I am a born Congressman and I returned to the party fold," Deshmukh said. Rane left his own Shiv Sena party three years ago after revolting. He then joined Congress only to revolt again, he said. Deshmukh said he had good relations with Rane when he was the leader of Opposition. "He had invited me for a sumptuous fish curry lunch and now everything has turned fishy." Deshmukh said Rane had participated in the CLP meeting which authorised the AICC president to select the new leader. "He is now opposing the decision and it is a direct revolt against the leadership," he added. He said he had not discussed Rane's public tirade against him with the party leaders in Delhi. "His membership has been put under suspension. It is for the party to take a further call on this issue. Apart from targeting me, he has criticized many other leaders including the new chief minister," he said. To a question on possibility of rapprochement with Rane, Deshmukh said he has never spoken against him. "He thinks he is the only person in Maharashtra who should become chief minister. Hence, there is not much one can do," he said. Deshmukh said it was up to to Rane to take a call on his future in the Congress. "As far as I know, Congress is not in a mood to placate him. By suspending him, the party has already given a signal," he said. Deshmukh said the Rane factor will not be a spoiler for the Congress in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. "His influence is restricted to Sindhudurg district. His supporters were given tickets for Ratnagiri zilla parishad, Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan Dombivali municipal corporation elections and lost," he said. Deshmukh said Rane and his supporters who joined the Congress never mixed with the party mainstream in the last three years. "Even though his MLAs were elected on a Congress ticket, they preferred to call themselves as Rane supporters and not Congress MLAs. No Congress activists have joined Rane."To Rane's claim that he can pull down the Ashok Chavan government with support of 30 MLAs, Deshmukh dared Rane to prove that he has the support which he claims. "Out of the six MLAs who joined the Congress with him, one of them has left him to become a minister," Deshmukh said.
