Thackeray gets himself a new remote control

Mumbai, Jan 30: In a day of dramatic political developments, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray today unceremoniously removed Chief Minister...

Mumbai, Jan 30: In a day of dramatic political developments, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray today unceremoniously removed Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and nominated Revenue Minister Narayan Rane as his successor.

Following orders of his political mentor, Joshi submitted his resignation to Governor P C Alexander in the evening and later Sena8217;s general secretary, Subhash Desai, conveyed the legislature party8217;s decision of change in leadership to the governor. Rane is likely to be sworn in as the new Chief Minister on Monday.

Making the announcement at a party meeting at Sena Bhavan in presence of his son Udhav, Thackeray said he had asked Joshi to resign the august office in larger interest of the party. 8220;Since we have to face the assembly elections next year, I have asked Joshi to resign. Rane will be new Chief Minister,8221; Thackeray said.

According to a senior Shiv Sena Minister, before making the announcement, Thackeray had a brief discussion with Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting PramodMahajan, the architect of the Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra. 8220;Apparently, Mahajan has cleared the proposal mooted by Thackeray and also approved the nomination of Rane in his place,8221; the Minister added.

Departing from traditional practice of summarily sacking from the party or post, Thackeray wrote a personal letter to Joshi to submit his resignation to the Governor today itself. The Sena chief is understood to have brought to the notice of Manohar Joshi his inability to strengthen the organisation, particularly in view of the forthcoming assembly elections.

Joshi has submitted resignation to Thackeray twice on earlier occassion after the massive debacle of the party in the Lok Sabha elections and when on March 23 last year, Thackeray publicly criticised the Chief Minister for his friendship of senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar and rampant corruption and irregularities in the administration. But then, Thackeray did not take cognisance of the resignations. However, today, he himself asked the ChiefMinister to quit with immediate effect to pave the way for Rane, Joshi8217;s arch rival.

Apparently, Thackeray was not happy with his style of functioning, particularly his complete failure to implement the directives given by him in letter and spirit. The immediate cause of displeasure was the failure of Joshi to get a cabinet nod for a proposal to provide free power to the farmers. Addressing the annual Dassera rally, Thackeray had announced that the alliance government will provide free power to the farmers. However, BJP stalled the proposal. Subsequently, there were three meetings of the senior Shiv Sena and BJP but the row could not be resolved. Even at the highlevel coordination committee of the Shiv Sena and BJP held on Thursday, Joshi apparently failed to convince the BJP on the power proposal.