On Thursday, Maharashtra Congress MLA (senior leader Narayan Rane’s son) Nitesh Rane made a splash in the headlines. He has written a letter to the director of Guinness World Records urging them to record the number of threats issued by Shiv Sena to its alliance partner BJP.
BJP and Shiv Sena (SS) are coalition partners in Maharashtra. BJP has 122 MLAs while the Shiv Sena has 63 MLAs. Initially, Maharashtra’s CM Devendra Fadnavis was not willing to waive off farmers loans. During the last two months, Sena leaders have been issuing support withdrawal threats almost every day until recently, when the CM agreed to offer loan waiver to small farmers.
While commenting on Sena’s criticism, the state’s CM said yesterday that BJP is ready to face mid-term polls in the state if SS removes its support.
Political parties form an alliance with each other in almost every country. But perhaps, no other coalition partner must have issued so many threats to pull out of the government. Thus, Rane’s suggestion to Guinness regarding adding new category does make sense.
Nitesh Rane is Congress MLA from Maharashtra’s Kankavli assembly constituency in the Konkan region. He and his father started their career with Shiv Sena. They joined the Congress in July 2005 after being expelled from Sena. Since then, Rane and his sons Nitesh, as well as Nilesh, never let go any opportunity to criticize Shiv Sena.
