Panaji: Congress has paved the way for the father’s contest versus his son in Poriem after approving Pratapsingh Rane’s nomination to polls the Goa Assembly.
The day after BJP MLA and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said he would oppose his father and defeat him with 10,000 votes, Congress set a rolling ball.
“The Central Election Committee (CEC) has approved the nomination of Pratapsingh Rane as a Congress Candidate for the General Election to come to the Goa Legislative Assembly of the Poriem Constituency,” Muttering Wasnik, Secretary General and Incharge CEC, said in a short statement on Wednesday.
Rane has completed 50 years as MLA and has been selected for 11 consecutive terms.
He was the longest minister in Goa, after having five terms, the first was in 1980.
Rane, 83, had never lost the election from Poriem – where he had won since 1989, the first election after Goa reached the position in 1987 But now it is challenged by his son Vishwajit, another unbeaten politician who has tasted great success in Valpoi, the neighboring constituency he represented.
A source said Senior Rane was initially not tended to fight over the approaching.
That explains why his name is not among the eight candidates announced by the Congress last week.
He might change his mind after the supporters of Congress urged him to disagree, insisting he had to listen to his supporting request.
In September, the election of the BJP Goa responsible for Devendra Fadnavis visited Pratapsingh at his residence, along with the State President of BJP Sadanand Shet Tanavade.
Senior Rane rejected the visit as a courtesy call, but former Minister Maharashtra said it had received blessings from veteran politicians.
Fadniv also said the Congress would soon be reduced to two MLA.
But while the prediction came true, it was quite unexpected, it was the Curhorim Mla Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco who stopped to join TMC, while Senior Rane continued with the party that was associated for the past 45 years.
Pratapsingh never lost the election, but the WWISJIT – who won the Congress ticket in 2017 and then immediately stopped to join BJP – has stated that he had taken care of the election for the past 20 years.
Without Pratapsingh, Congress did not have strength in Sattari, Fiefdom of the Ranes.
Does not have strong candidates for poriems or valpours such as sources, Vishwajit has a relationship in both elections.
In addition to Valpoi, the Minister of Health has been asked to attend any problems in his father’s constituency.
On Tuesday, when Senior Rane confirmed that he would oppose the election on Congress tickets, Vishwajit said the family would “sort this problem peacefully”.