I am a loyal soldier of Sonia Gandhi: Rane

Emerging from his meeting with Sonia, Rane said, “I have got full respect in this party. Sonia Gandhiji is our leader and I will do whatever she asks me to do.” To a query why he boycotted the last state Cabinet meeting, he said, “I did not boycott it. I could not attend it.”

The Congress President was learnt to have told him that she would not accept his resignation from the state Cabinet, he had offered to step down in a letter to Sonia in July, because he would have to produce the results in the next Lok Sabha election.

According to sources, she assured him she would consider his “grievances”— relating to the Videocon land allotment issue and the functioning of the state Government — “seriously” and on his part he has to strengthen the party.

AICC member Kanhaialal Gidwani, who along with state Campaign Committee chairman Gurudas Kamat played the role of chief interlocutors between Rane and the Central leadership, said the “so-called” crisis was over. “Rane has always sworn by his loyalty to our party President,” said Gidwani who had accompanied Rane to Delhi.

Saturday’s developments could be a dampener for the Chief Minister who was smelling victory in his feud with Rane after the High Command had appointed the PCC chief, Campaign Committee chairperson and some other key party office-bearers in the state without taking the Revenue Minister into confidence about a week back.

Although Rane’s pronouncements indicated diffusion of the crisis, Congress sources said that given the persisting differences between him and the CM, there is yet to be a final word on this issue.