Maharashtra police arrested Union minister Narayan Rane on Tuesday afternoon, the dramatic development threatening to escalate the war between the BJP and the Shiv Sena and wreck the oft-speculated possibility of a reconciliation between the estranged allies.
The arrest in Maharashtra came after Rane threatened to “slap” chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in a speech on Monday night at a rally over the Sena leader’s Independence Day address.
Rane was granted bail by a local court on Tuesday night.
Rane was arrested at former RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar’s ancestral village of Golwali in Ratnagiri district.
Uddhav Thackeray
Maharashtra’s ruling coalition, always on tenterhooks over the recurring conjectures about a Sena-BJP patch-up, exhaled in relief while gearing for retribution from the Centre over the state government’s challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authority.
Both the NCP and the Congress stayed off the controversy but condemned Rane’s indiscreet remarks.
“(Uddhav) Thackeray forgot the year of India’s Independence during his August 15 address and had to check with his aide mid-speech,” Rane, Union minister of micro, small and medium enterprises, had said.
“It’s shameful that the chief minister doesn’t know the year of Independence. He leaned back to ask about the count of years since Independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given him a tight slap.”
Rane’s supporters and BJP workers protest against Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray outside Rane’s home at Juhu in Mumbai on Tuesday PTI
Rane, 69, a former Shiv Sena chief minister of Maharashtra who had come to the BJP via the Congress, was arrested after a sessions court in Ratnagiri rejected his plea for anticipatory bail and Bombay High Court denied him protection.
Earlier, as Sena workers filed a series of FIRs against him, Rane had boasted he couldn’t be arrested as he was no “normal (ordinary) man”.
There’s no legal bar to arresting a Union minister or an MP. The police will now have to inform Rajya Sabha Chairperson M. Venkaiah Naidu of the arrest.
Although Centre-state confrontations have become routine at a time central agencies have been raiding Opposition politicians at the drop of a hat, a Union minister’s arrest is a rare occurrence.
Chennai police had under the late Jayalalithaa arrested sitting Union ministers T.R. Balu and Murasoli Maran two decades ago. Union ministers like Kalpnath Rai, Sukh Ram and A. Raja had been arrested in corruption cases only after quitting their posts.
A Congress leader gleefully argued that the rising tensions were political insurance for the state government. “Modi either digests this insult or burns his bridges with Uddhav; the choice is his,” he said.
Rane’s comments touched a raw nerve among Shiv Sainiks because they were seen as a show of disrespect for the Thackeray family. Sena workers burst crackers and danced on the streets after his arrest.
Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut has written to Modi demanding Rane be sacked for his remarks against Uddhav.
PTI
Rane, who had been chief minister for a few months in 1999 with Balasaheb Thackeray’s blessings, quit the Sena in 2005 amid serious differences with the family, joined the Congress and held cabinet positions. He left the Congress to float his own party in 2017 before joining the BJP in 2018.
The state BJP, which lacks much emotional attachment to the former Congress leader, initially appeared uninterested in protesting his arrest after distancing itself from the “slap” remark.
Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that though he disapproved of Rane’s comment, he was “personally” with Rane in this crisis.
However, the Centre cannot take the issue lightly. Earlier, when the Uddhav government had arrested TV anchor and BJP favourite Arnab Goswami, the ruling dispensation at the Centre had hit back hard, forcing the exit of state home minister Anil Deshmukh.
Additional reporting by PTI
